Everlasting Love (a white paint makeover)

Hmph.  The hardest part about this entire project?

How to title it!

Do I go with:

1. White Goes With Everything
2. I Have Commitment Issues
3. or, Hello, I’m Indecisive

Color choice gets me every time.

With a beautiful selection of Americana Decor Chalky Finish paint colors to choose from, I went with white. Safe, safe white.

Well,  “Everlasting” to be exact.

I can’t help it! I love white. Versatile, goes-with-everything, white.

Perhaps because I ask so much of even my small furnishings, expecting them to move from one room to another effortlessly, white just always makes sense and almost always wins out.

This was my first time using the Chalky Finish line of paint by DecoArt and while it’s a no prep paint style paint, meaning no pre-sanding or priming… my garage sale find needed a little repair.

There was a rung missing that did not affect the stability of the stool, so I decided to sand it down, rather than go to trouble of repairing it.

You can see below the gnarly nub that was left.

With 3 rungs on each side, I’m glad this missing one didn’t need to be replaced.

It was really easy to just grind it off with my palm sander!

After the piece was smooth and nub free, it was ready for paint.

I was ready to began taking this piece from pale pink, to Everlasting white.

To Paint:

• Make sure your piece is clean and free of dust or dirt.
• I flipped my stool upside down, and painted the legs and rungs first.
• TIP: When painting things with legs, like small tables, chairs, or in this case, a stool, work from the bottom up.
• I used the special brush you see on the legs, these are great for curved surfaces and make it so much easier to paint things like trim, moulding and legs.
• I painted in light, even coats and by the time I worked back around from the start point, I was able to re-coat no problem.
• It was 91* the day I painted this, so dry time was pretty quick.

• Once my legs were done, I flipped it got ready to paint the seat.
• My seat was really rough and uneven with lots of drips and such, so I hit it with my sander while I was working on the missing rung problem.

• I used a regular paint brush for the seat portion of the painting.
• I let everything dry overnight and applied the Ultra Matte Varnish the next day.
• The instructions state to let the varnish dry to the touch before re coating if you would like more than one coat.
• I only did one, because it was very muggy and I wanted it to cure well. I’ll apply another coat or two soon.
• Both products are water based and clean up with mild soap and water.

I found the paint to be very creamy and it had a nice flow. There were also minimal brush strokes with this paint. White can be tricky, with the fewest pigments of any color, and I did have to put a few coats on to get good coverage. This is fairly common with white. It’s a pure, clean white. I like the tone. The odor was next to none, I painted inside with no problem at all. Such a great feature of the chalk based paints. The varnish was surprisingly mild smelling (to me) and I found it easy to work with.

Now I’ve got a bright, white base in a super matte, chalky finish that was easy to achieve.

I chose not to distress it for now, but if I do I’ll report back.

I like the serene, white and that it’s protected with the varnish, but still looks so simple and unadorned.

Much more than seating, stools offer that perfect little perch that works in any room.

Stuff that does double, even triple duty is okay in with me.

I plan to haul this all over the house now that it’s ready to play with anything, in Everlasting.

Getting to play around with the Hydrangeas I dried was nice.

Having my plants on the sun deck worked beautifully for keeping them safe from the Deer.

Next year, I can’t imagine how many blooms I’ll have. I’m giddy. Giddy I tell you!!

Time to fade into Fall though…

These pretty, dried leaves make it a little less painful.

We went from a record setting 91* to gloomy and downright chilly today.

I’ve got my favorite old-lady sweater on today as I type this.

My heart is warm though.

I scored those three Copper beauties for 75 cents. (and a few more I’ll share soon!)

They will fit in wonderful with the collection I’ve got going.

New treasures… always fun!!

Disclosure: I was provided product and/or payment to write this article, however, all opinions are mine.

Plus, I’d been really curious about the Chalky Finish paint so I really wanted to get my hands on some and I enjoyed getting to share my experience using it with you.

More Ideas: Click here to find more chalky paint ideas and inspiration.

Where to buy it: Americana Decor Chalky Finish paint is available in Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, AC Moore and other stores.

 PS: Just FIY… I finally decided on a title, hours later, after the entire article was written. I tell you, I struggle!

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