When we moved into this house, about five years ago, there were a few pieces of furniture that were left behind.

One was this weird cabinet thing in the dining room.

I didn’t have anything else to put there, so I left it. Even though it was pretty ugly.

(I think it originally was meant to be a bar or liquor cabinet, but since I have no need for one of those I began using it to store all of my kid’s extra craft supplies.)

I had planned to give it a makeover. Now, five years later, it finally happened.

Chalk Painting a Cabinet

I chose chalk paint because it requires no prep. You don’t need to sand or prime before painting. And since this piece had so many grooves, sanding seemed like a nightmare.

The supplies I used:

• Rustoleum Coastal Blue Chalk Paint
• These Brushes (I wish I would’ve bought smaller brushes.)

Here’s what the first coat was looking like…

Since the coverage wasn’t what I wanted I waited for the first coat to dry and then my painting assistant and I gave it a second coat. After it dried, I reattached the hardware.

Here’s how it turned out…

The Pros and Cons of Using Chalk Paint for this Project

In the end it’s a definite improvement but wasn’t exactly how I had hoped it would turn out.

Pros:

• Chalk paint is super easy to use
• Very fast drying
• No prep needed
• Can be sanded or have antiquing wax added

Cons:

• The color on the paint can is NOTHING like how it turned out
• Takes multiple coats to achieve a full coverage look

In the end, I think chalk paint was a good product to use for this project solely because there was zero prep needed. However, I’d be a little hesitant to use it on projects that I don’t want to appear too rustic.