In praise of chalk paint

I've come over all yummy mummy recently & started daubing chalk paint on things. Chalk paint is addictive to work with because on most surfaces it requires no priming, it dries quickly, it can be sealed with a thin coat of wax & if you don't like the end result you can just paint over it & start again.

I painted over this hideous marmalade fire surround in my living room last year 

 & got this rather nice, grown up result. 

I still have loads of paint left over & have been eyeing up other tat that I can "transform".

This is my latest project.

It's an IKEA mirror that I decorated in a class at a scrapbooking retreat. You may be shocked to learn, reader, that I've never been entirely convinced by it, which is why it has lived on a dark wall under the stairs for nine years. I finally decided it was chalk or chuck (or quite possibly both) & dug my paint out.

I use Autentico chalk paint because that's what my nearest stockist sells, but there are other brands available & even B&Q stocks a range. You can usually buy sample pots if you only want to paint something tidgy.


I covered the mirrored section to protect it, then painted a medium coat of paint making sure the brush strokes went all in one direction. Honestly, it took less than 5 minutes to cover it, then about 15 minutes to dry. I applied a second coat, let it dry then brushed on some wax & buffed it off. The whole thing took less than an hour.

Most impressively of all, I done a proper DIY & hung it on the wall myself! Not just a nail-straight-in-the-wall job, neither. I put a proper picture hook on the wall & hung it off that. #skillz.
 

That right hand picture looks out of alignment now. That's going to bug me.