Blue Ombre Dresser with Homemade Chalk Paint

Remember way back when I asked what I should do with this dresser?

Just to refresh your memory, it's for my daughter Kayla's room.  She is dead set on having her room be blue and green and wanted the dresser painted both colors.  I'm not a huge fan of multicolored pieces of furniture, so we came up with a compromise.

I painted it an ombre blue and added some cute blue and green knobs.

I didn't want to buy a bunch of paint for this project, so I just used what I had in the garage and mixed, mixed, and mixed some more.  Achieving the right shades and differentiation in color definitely took some experimentation!

Here's just a little sample of some of the colors we tried.  To make chalk paint, I just add Plaster of Paris and a little water to the paint.  The benefit of using chalk paint is no sanding and priming and a short dry time.  It also distresses really well, but we didn't want to distress this piece.

I would love to add Kayla's room to our house tour, but it's definitely NOT in photo-worthy shape right now.  There's a huge bunk bed right in the middle of the room and sheets strung up to make a fort, not to mention all of the precious treasures she cannot bear to throw away.  Ahhh, the life of a preteen girl!  Here's just a teeny-tiny view into this blue and green room. 

I think this little brass owl is so cute.  He used to be in the living room, until Kayla adopted him as her own.

What do you think?  Are you still a fan of ombre?  I am!  And, if we get tired of it, all it takes is some paint to give it a new look.

Linked to some of my favorite DIY blogs:  Liz Marie, House of Hepworths, My Simple Home Life, Happy Hour Projects,
Elizabeth & Co, DIY Dreamer, Today's Creative Blog, Sugar Bee Crafts, Not Just a Housewife, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Primitive and Proper, Home Stories of A to Z, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Tip Junkie, Type A Decorating, , The Thrifty Home, Domestically Speaking, Primp,
A Diamond in the Stuff, Restore Interiors, The Shabby Chic Cottage,  Beyond the Picket Fence, My Simple Home Life,
Addicted 2 Decorating, Just a Girl, Remodelaholic, Miss Mustard Seed, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots and Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Thrifty Decor Chick, Coastal Charm, Serenity Now, Get Outta My Head Please, You are Talking Too Much, The Southern Institute  My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Fox Hollow Cottage Pinterest Party,  Beneath My Heart

Help Me Paint a Dresser

Are your kids opinionated?  Mine definitely have opinions on everything, from how I should cook dinner to what they want to wear.  As long as it's not harmful or too annoying to me, I generally let them do what they want (within reason and rules of course!).  It's not going to kill anybody if they wear mismatching clothes or have wild hair.

Of course they have opinions on how they want their rooms to look.  So far, I've been able to steer the younger two towards something that both of us like.  My oldest has requested a blue and green room.  I like this combo, but she wants her dresser to be a mix of blue and green.  I'm not sure how to paint this dresser without it looking too crazy.  I think I'm having a hard time figuring this out, because I'm really just a solid-color kind of girl.

She wants a bright peacock blue, like this vanity, and also a bright green.  She's a tomboy and doesn't like anything too girly.

I'm thinking something along the lines of this room for her:

Source: Uploaded by user via Suzanne on Pinterest

Will you help me figure out how to paint this dresser blue and green?

Stripes are an option.  But what kind of stripes?

Diagonal?

Source: google.ca via Suzanne on Pinterest

Only on the sides?

Source: etsy.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Various horizontal thicknesses?

Source: designspongeonline.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Off-center vertical?

Source: etsy.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Thick vertical?

Source: designspongeonline.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Or I could paint the body one color and the drawers another color...kind of like this?

Source: etsy.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

These are the exact colors she likes....I guess they don't look too carnival-ish together.


I love O'verlays, but have yet to try them.  Maybe I could do a blue base and then paint the O'verlays green?  I have to measure to see if they even fit on this dresser.

Source: thedesignpages.blogspot.com via Andréa on Pinterest

Help a girl out!  What should I do?

Homemade Chalk Paint Dresser

There are so many great furniture makeovers using chalk paint.  However, I'm bit too cheap to shell out over $50 for a quart.  I've been thinking about trying to make my own chalk paint, but haven't had the right piece to try it on.

Enter this dresser.  It's perfect for my chalk paint experiment AND my daughter Chloe needs a new dresser.  Double score!!

This is probably the nicest piece of furniture I've picked up at a yard sale.  It's made by Drexel, solid wood (super heavy!), dovetail joints, etc. etc.  It's also in near-perfect condition.

Chloe wanted yellow.  So, I picked up a free quart of Ice Cream Sundae at Ace Hardware in a flat finish.  I had seen different techniques on making chalk paint.  At first I was going to use unsanded grout mixed in with the paint because I had a container of it sitting in my garage.

Luckily, my friend Ange from the Blooming Hydrangea commented that this would make the paint a "chalkboard" - type paint rather than the coveted "chalk" paint.  Instead, I mixed Plaster of Paris with the paint and thinned it with a little water.

I don't have an exact recipe or tutorial for you because I didn't measure anything.  I started by putting a few tablespoons of plaster of paris into a container.  I mixed this with about a tablespoon of water and then added a cup or so of paint and mixed well.  The consistency was similar to yogurt...fairly thick.

As I painted it on, there were glops and bumps.  The paint dries VERY quickly....maybe in twenty minutes or so.  There is no need to wait for the paint to cure.  You can go right ahead and sand as soon as the paint is dry.  Just like everyone says, the paint sanded beautifully into a chalk dust.

I used two coats of Minwax paste wax, which buffed to a subtle shine.

I added some new hardware from Hobby Lobby.

And I have a cute new dresser for my cute little Chloe.

Before:

After:

This is my "After" project for Lisa's Before and After party, which I wasn't supposed to share until the end of the month.  But, I finished it so quickly and was so excited by it that I had to share it now!

Linked here:
Today's Creative Blog, Sugar Bee Crafts, Not Just a Housewife, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Bella Before and After, Primitive and Proper, Home Stories of A to Z, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Tip Junkie, Type A Decorating, http://sistersstuff.blogspot.com/, The Thrifty Home, Domestically Speaking, Primp,
A Diamond in the Stuff, Restore Interiors, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Beyond the Picket Fence, Fireflies and Jellybeans,My Simple Home Life,
Addicted 2 Decorating, Just a Girl, Remodelaholic, Miss Mustard Seed, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots and Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Thrifty Decor Chick, Coastal Charm, Junker Newbie, Serenity Now

Pinterest Challenge and a Feature

I was hoping to share a Pinterest challenge with you today, but yesterday we decided to go on an impromptu getaway.  I brought my laptop, computer and camera with pictures of my project, but I forgot my camera cord to get the pics from the camera to computer.

I will be home later today and hopefully I'll get my Pinterest challenge post up then.

I recently "met" designer Lori May through our mutual blog friend Holly of West Pear Avenue.  Lori was recently featured on West Elm's blog, Front & Main, for this sitting area in a loft she designed.

Lori is featuring my daughter Mary's pink and orange room today on her blog.  Thank Lori!  Please stop by and say "hi" to Lori if you have a chance.

Hopefully, I will be back later with my Pinterest challenge.

The One Room Challenge: Week 6: The REVEAL

The One Room Challenge wraps up this week and that means that the tranformation from nursery to big girl room is complete!  I have had so much fun participating in this challenge and meeting some new-to-me bloggers; but most importantly, I've created a room for my daughter that she likes. 

Here's where we started:

I kept the dresser and the bed, but that's about it.

I love the elephant print from the Pink Pagoda.  Mary loves the picture of our puppy wrapped in her blanket.

I made a few prints using Picnik.

My mom sewed this for me when I was a baby and it was in my room as a child:

Painted butterflies

Embroidery hoop collage

If you look closely, you can see the DIY ombre art and tissue paper pompoms on top.

 Here's another little print I made on Picnik.

I had to include this sweet baby picture as well as Mary's favorite stuffed animal, who she calls "Baby Jaguar."  He's missing an arm.

Here are links to some of the projects:

DIY Upholstered Headboard
Supersized picture
Striped Curtains
Painted table and lamp
Throw Pillows
Make your own prints
Ombre Art

Stop by some of the other One Room Challenge participants to see how their rooms turned out too!

Dutch.British.Love
Trapped in North Jersey
Nicole Scott Designs
Kim Macumber Interiors
Rue de Emily
The Pink Pagoda
refresheddesigns
Nana Moon Shop
Taylor Morgan Design
Insideways
My Crafty Home Life
House Four
Living Savvy
(A Lifestyle Thing)

Linked here: