Valspar Chalky Finish Paint Colors – For the past few years I have been painting with Annie Sloan chalk paint, I love that you don’t have to do much prep, it’s easy to undo, it’s so versatile. But waxing and polishing wears out my hands, and with so many projects I tend to work on, I’m looking for alternatives for a change. I started working part-time at Lowes in the paint department (that was my only connection to Valspar, they didn’t know who I was) and a Valspar representative introduced me to two new colors that Valspar had introduced last fall: Valspar furniture and Valspar cabinet paint. The difference between the two is that the color of the furniture is a satin finish and the color of the cabinet is a semi-gloss finish. Valspar has no sanding or brush marks.

I had a chest of drawers in my garage for about three years that was a nice piece, solid wood, and a beautiful dark green color with wooden knobs. Since it was under repair, after servicing, we took it and bought a liter of midnight mist and worked on it. Here’s how it looks before, I removed the boxes before the picture (oops).

Valspar Chalky Finish Paint Colors

You can see where I used a bit of primer, there were some lumps and I was just skeptical. The first layer, if it is good.

Decoart Americana Decor 16 Oz. New Life Chalky Finish Adc14 83

A small drawback of this paint is the drying time. You need to wait 8-12 hours between coats. I waited the full 12 and maybe longer before adding another coat. Valspar cabinet paint was great, I was very satisfied with the result. I put a third layer on the boxes, it was a bit thin in some places, probably due to the user and not the paint.

At the top I wanted contrast so I used Minwax Polisheds in Espresso, the buds were a bit tricky, do you like my bud tree?

I really enjoyed using Valspar furniture paint and have already mixed up another liter to use on another project. So far, it has fulfilled all of Valspar’s promises. Leave any comments I want from you here. I finally finished my last project before the baby arrived! I had a last minute burst of energy and decided to do a dresser makeover in our bedroom nursery. When we moved into our new house last summer, my in-laws gave us a nice bedroom; It consisted of a large chest of drawers, a wardrobe and two nightstands. The wood is beautiful, but we didn’t like the look that matched the bedroom, so we knew we wanted to replace some of the pieces and make them our own. In this post, I’ll show you before and after pictures of the dresser!

As I mentioned before, we are in the process of building a little nook in our bedroom for the nursery. Now seems like the perfect time to turn my decorating attention to this space. I didn’t want to do something so childish that we would have to change when we moved the baby out of his room. I love deep blues and greens, so when choosing a color I chose this beautiful teal called the Opera Dress. It’s actually a chameleon color, depending on the light or the colors you put it in, it can appear deep blue or gray.

How To Use Chalky Paint

I’ve worked with Valspar chalk paint before and had good luck with it, so I knew it was the right product for this project! I love that there is no prep work other than dusting the surface. The hardware and drawers were removed before I started painting. I used two coats of Valspar Chalk Paint on Opera Dress. I didn’t read the directions very well which said to wait 24 hours before repainting. Instead I thought it read “night” 8 hours before applying another coat. Anyway, it worked. I waited about 24 hours after applying the second coat of paint to start the waxing process. Using soft wax is easy but tedious. I just worked in small sections, applied with a brush, let sit for a minute or two, then wiped off the excess with an old t-shirt. I waited a few days to put something on the surface and change the boxes for the wax to really set.

A big thanks to my friends at Valspar for sponsoring this post! As always, all opinions are honest and my own.

I’m very happy with the result and I hope you found some inspiration to update something yourself 🙂 Every now and then I get messages asking how to paint furniture. I always have a two-fold answer. First, what should the finish be? Nice clean look? Or a more rustic distressed matte look? I ask what kind of furniture it is. Is it all shiny and ready to go? Or something you found at the curb and found it quite messy?

Although I ask these questions, my overall recommendation remains the same. For painting furniture, especially for those who have never done it before, I recommend chalk paint. You can definitely use latex or oil based paint. I have done it many times myself. But these kinds of colors are definitely beautiful. So if I don’t have a paint sprayer, time to spend fixing brush or roller marks, and time to sand and prime the surface, I use chalk paint.

Dresser Makeover In Nursery Nook Using Valspar Chalky Finish Paint

So why chalk paint? First, let’s make something clear. These are not boards. Chalk paint is a paint with added calcium carbonate that can be mistaken for chalk. This additive (as well as others) allows you to paint the surface without sanding or priming. The color is thick (fewer layers and less color) and covers completely. Now, it has a matte finish and the brush marks are very easily visible, so you have to work with that look to make it work. You can finish the painted surface with a wax coating or a polyethylene coating (although wax is generally recommended). It is quite durable after getting a coat of wax, but before that it wears easily. I painted my bathroom cabinet with it and sealed it with wax and a year and a half later it still looks great.

The “gold” standard for chalk paint is Anne Sloan. I blog about her colors often (check them out here , here , and here ). I love his paint, but at only about $50.00 a gallon, it’s expensive. Honestly, this color goes a long way. I’ve used just one sample pot (usually $10.00) to paint an entire table in the past. It’s only sold through specialty retailers, so it’s hard to find.

The chalk paint market has really expanded in recent years as the use of paint has become more and more popular. Wal-Mart has two of its own brands (usually in the paint section near spray paint and in the craft section near acrylic paint). I used them and didn’t really mind. They cover well and the anti-wax works well (almost too well). Check out my project with Wal-Mart paint here.

I chalk painted myself using sandless grout. It’s great for craft projects, but too clunky for a large display (at least the way I do it). Click here to see my chalk painting post.

Chalk Paint Spray Paint Does It Work?

Anyway, let me give you some background so you know what color I’m talking about and that I’ve dabbled a few times in painting furniture. I think I’ve painted about 150 pieces of furniture in the last 5 years.

Lowes/Valspar recently came out with their chalk paint version. At $30.00 a liter this is a modest street price. It has about 60 different colors. A few years ago I had to repaint the last table that was painted with latex paint (and a poor quality one at that) and the stain and peeling started. So I decided it would be the perfect project to try the new Valspar chalk paint.

Since this was an experiment and I didn’t mind messing with the final table a bit, I took two different approaches. I left the old yellow latex paint on. I sanded it until the shiny finish was gone (I sanded really soft) and then wiped it off.

The table looked good as soon as it was finished. After a few years, it no longer looked like that.

How To Paint Kitchen Cabinets At Home With The Barkers

I actually scraped all the old paint off the rest of the table so I got down