Chalk Painted Antique Sewing Cabinet

Don't you just love it when you finally find inspiration to makeover something that you've been struggling with  ( figuratively speaking) for ages.  That's exactly what happened to me last week when I was looking at a posting on facebook from Annie Sloan.  She suggested we take a look at this awesome antique sewing machine makeover from " The Empty Nest"- using Annie Sloan Chalk paint, of course.  Now, you'll know if you've read one of my more recent posts that I recently discovered how to make Chalk Paint myself

 ( a quick recap on that later). I also happen to own an antique sewing machine in a cabinet, exactly like the one that  " The Empty Nest" did, so I was doubly excited.

The picture below is the cabinet that inspired me- she called her "Coco", after Coco Chanel, since her cabinet doesn't have the sewing machine in it anymore, and Coco Chanel prefered hand sewing to machine sewing.

 I've had my sewing machine for 18 years, and never did anything to fix it up. And believe me, it was in a terrible state. It is truly an antique (about 100 years old), once belonging to a great- aunt on a farm.  That sewing machine made all the clothing for a family of 12, as well as many relatives and was very well used and loved.  I put it in my living room, covered the badly scratched and worn top with a crocheted runner and  displayed my collection of antique flow- blue china on and over it. 

Not bad, but I am totally in love with " The Empty Nest" makeover, so I decided to spend this Labour Day weekend  making mine look just as awesome.  My cabinet  is definately in worse shape, but I was up for the challenge.  First order of business was to  head over to Home Depot and pick up the supplies ( or in my case just pick up the supplies after work since I work at Home Depot).

Here's what you need :

*Chalk Paint  in 2 colors ( recipe will follow)
Sandpaper
Painter's masking tape
Paint brush
Flat black spray paint- I used Tremclad Rust paint
Plastic drop sheets
Wood glue or Weldbond ( to fix the veneer that was coming loose on my cabinet)
Furniture paste wax

*Recipe for home made Chalk Paint- equal parts latex paint and Plaster of Paris.You might have to add a little water if it's too thick, which mine was, since the latex paint I had was old and had thickened up a lot. Yup, that's it. A  blogger friend of mine saw my posting about making your own Gesso, which is chalk paint also, and gave me this even easier recipe.  And it really works. She got the recipe from an antique dealer.  Gotta love bloggers- we're very inquisitive people.  Only costs $5.00 for a large box of plaster of paris and you can mix it with whatever color latex paint you want.  If it get's too thick while you're painting, just keep adding water as you go to thin it to the consistency of thick cream.

Next I called my neighbour ( a Fireman) to help me carry the machine outside- LOL.  It weighs a ton since the original Iron Lady sewing machine was still inside.  Once she was safely on my driveway, I vacuumed cobwebs and dust off every bit of her, then I hosed her down.  It was a very hot day, so the water dried really fast.  I'm sure I broke some antique refinishing rules by doing this, but it's for my own personal use- so- OH WELL!!!!!

Here's what she looks like before the transformation:

As you can see, she's in pretty rough shape, but still a very beautiful piece of nostalgia.  I'll be removing the sewing machine from the cabinet and cleaning her up too, but that will be another post, so stay tuned for that.



You can see how badly worn the top is, and some of the veneer is coming loose. And the iron bottom is pretty rusted.

After wrapping the cabinet in a plastic drop sheet to protect it , I gave the bottom 2 coats of flat black spray paint, and it looks 100% better already. And I have to say, I absolutely love the the Rustoleum ergonomic sprayer for the spray can- it really makes spray painting easy, and saves your hands from cramping.  I definately recommend it- only about $7.00 at Home Depot.

Here is what she looks like with her first coat of home-made chalk paint ( Behr Cottage White mixed with Plaster of Paris), and a piece of repurposed wood nailed over the empty space where I believe a drawer once was.

I added a cut-out from some paintable wallpaper and filled the holes with spackle.  I painted the drawers and edges of the cabinet, as well as the cut-outs with French Silver by Behr( also mixed with Plaster of Paris) .  Then I distrressed it and waxed it with MinWax Finishing wax in natural.

  Lots of buffing after that.

 And ..................

VOILA!!!!!!!

Meet "Mademoiselle Chloe"

I  A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y LOVE HER!!!!!!!!

Here are some close-ups of some of the detail.

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out, and I am now a Chalk Paint lover.  Of course, I will not be buying any Annie Sloan Chalk paint since it is so easy and inexpensive to make yourself. 

Until next time. 

The Mystery of Chalk Paint Revealed

Hello Everyone!

I'm really excited about a discovery I recently made. Ever since I read about this amazing Annie Sloan Chalk Paint my mind has been in overdrive trying to figure out what it is. You see, I have an art background, and I knew that there had to be a product already out there and readily available.  Well, I finally figured it out with a little digging and searching through the web.  It is very simply Gesso. What is Gesso you ask- it is an very old  product made out of powdered chalk, glue and water, used to prime canvases prior to painting with oil or tempera paint. You can also use it as paint, as long as you "wax " over it to protect the finish. The reason that you don't have to prime before you paint with it, is that it is, in essence a primer.  Primer is just glue.  This contains glue.  And what makes it Chalk Paint?- Chalk.  Pretty simple when you think about it. 

Annie Sloan Chalk paint

  How did I make this discovery you ask?  Well, one day I was going through some of my fav blogs and came across one where the author paints furniture with Gesso- the ready- made kind that you buy at Art and Craft stores.  This type is a synthetic product made of acrylic, but still very similar to original Gesso. I thought it looked strangely like the Chalk paint, but I couldn't be sure, so I decided to Google Gesso.

To my absolute amazement, the very first web site I came across refers to Gesso as "Chalk " paint.  It even gives you some very simple recipes for making your own, and you will be "shocked "at how inexpensive and easy it is to make.  There are 2 different types listed- original Gesso made from Animal glue , and an imitation version made out of Chalk powder, white glue- or PVA glue ( and I mean that really cheap Elmers glue) and water.  You can even add pigment to it if you want to colour it.  This is the one you will want for painting your furniture, and I will add the link so everyone can see for themselves what I saw.  It even lists one of  Annie Sloan's books as their resource for the recipe.  I really can't believe it and am still dizzy from this discovery.  Anyway, here is the link to the website, and happy experimenting with your own inexpensive "Chalk" paint.

Here is a snippet of the article just so you all know that I am "serious", and not just "delusional".





Now I realize some of you won't want to go to the bother of making your own, and kudos to Annie Sloan for coming up with a way of making  money from a very inexpensive product that has been around for centuries, but I for one will not be paying the outrageous price now that I know what it is.  I am going to make my own, and experiment - you see there are very many different methods and ways of making Gesso.  I take it as a challenge. 

Until next time.  Au Revoir.

This is an update to this post:  Late last night I decided to give making this a try.  I just couldn't wait.  Now the only things I had were reguar chalk sticks ( the kind you use to write on blackboards) and Weldbond white glue. Since it was only an experiment, I decided to make a small quantity.  I ground up the chalk with a mortar and pestal until it was very fine, added an equal amount of glue, and water and stirred.  I didn't get the chalk as finely ground as I would have liked, but that's okay because for the real thing I will buy chalk powder from Home Depot.  Then I colored it a pretty blue with a small amount of water color paint.  It was a little runny, so I added more chalk and glue and painted it onto a scrap piece of board.  I let it dry over night, and this morning I tried sanding it.



My sample board with homemade chalk paint- after sanding and waxing.

 Turns out the Weldbond is just too hard to use as the glue in this mix, but it looks really good.  I was able to sand it with a palm sander, but it was too rigid to sand by hand, so I will use regular Elmer's white glue in the actual product.  I  didn't have any paste wax, so I rubbed  the surface with an old white candle and buffed it with a cloth.  It looks great.  Now I know I can go out and buy all the right ingredients and make this paint really easily for my next furniture project.  I just knew that with a little investigating I would figure this out.  Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!