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105bVIDEO Chalked paint tour
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Jan 24, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
In this video I want to talk to you about what I call distressable finishes
0:05
And by that I mean a finish that has been first prepared with either chalked paint or milk paint
0:14
I'm going to be telling you more about those two things in a moment. So a finish that's been prepared with this kind of paint but intentionally worn
0:23
So it looks old and kind of nice really. And another feature of the distressable finish is that as the
0:29
the bumps and dings and wear and tear of everyday life start to appear on your wood
0:36
surface. It's just going to look better because the irregularities are supposed to be there
0:41
So before I get into this demonstration of applying this kind of finish to this piece of wood
0:48
I just like you to take a look at some of the things I have made and finished in this way
0:54
There's a small blue cabinet. It's got the blue milk paint. in that case it's been distressed. There's also a white pine trunk in our living room, also distressed
1:10
There's a bookshelf as well that I've built and actually applied a milk paint finish to after the fact when I wanted to change the look of the bookshelf
1:21
I've also done chairs. Chairs work really well. In fact, if you find some chairs, some wooden chairs for sale in a flea market or some
1:29
like that they very often have some kind of a lacquer finish on them or something like
1:34
then they often don't look all that good a very good way to make that look better without all the
1:40
hassles of stripping a chair which is enormous is just to apply milk paint or chalked paint to
1:46
that chair and then to distress it down and you can see that in these blue chairs here that i've
1:52
finished too so but for now um we're going to get busy now this piece of wood here
2:00
Here, it's just some construction-grade spruce, in fact, nothing fancy. It's got a coat of stain on it now
2:08
Now, you don't need to stain first before you apply chalked paint or milk paint
2:13
any kind of distressable finish like that. But I like to do it, especially with lighter colored paints
2:19
and I'm going to be applying some white chalked paint here, with the lighter colors when you apply the distressing
2:27
so essentially a controlled wearing through the, the finish, you get the darker wood coming out and it really looks nice. Now, especially in this
2:36
case with wood that's at this light, if I put milk paint on here or chalked paint and I wore
2:42
it through, you'd hardly really notice because this is very light to begin with. That's why we do
2:47
the stain ahead of time. Not essential, but it makes it look better. It gives it a more authentically
2:53
old kind of look So milk paint This is an excellent brand I used this for years I first discovered this When was it 1987 I think In a cabinet shop where I worked we used to make
3:09
solid wood kitchen cabinets, and sometimes we'd finish them with this stuff, which is a powder
3:15
This is the stuff right here. You mix it with water. You want to power mix it because it doesn't
3:22
really mix all that easily, and you want a homogenous mix. So you'd want to use
3:29
something like this. Following the directions for dilution of course. This is my mixing paddle
3:35
in my electric drill and I use it for all kinds of things. It's an old spade bit. It used to be
3:41
for drilling wood. I ground off the central point in the middle mostly so I can get down
3:46
into the bottom of cans. Now the chalked paint that I'm going to be applying now comes
3:51
premixed and ready to use. You still do need to mix some though because stuff settles out and
3:59
So I'll just mix this now. It's going to take a lot less mixing than if I was using the milk paint
4:07
because it's already mixed. It just needs to be stirred. Now, if you're careful
4:29
You can kind of get the drill going faster. And see, it sets up a kind of a current of turbulence in the can
4:41
You see how it's automatically pulling stuff up from the bottom and kind of stirring it in
4:46
You want to be careful, though. If I were to pull this out right now, I'd get covered in paint and so would the camera
4:51
So that would be no good. But we're almost there now. Almost perfectly homogenous
4:59
Let's go. Nice and even in color. So chalked paint and milk paint are paint
5:10
And by that I mean they're opaque when they go on. They won't remain opaque if you choose to distress the finish
5:19
Now you don't have to distress the finish when you're using these things. It just happens to be my favorite way of using this stuff
5:25
It's very nice to use. I mean I don't have to just to just to just to just to stress the finish. I mean, I don't recommend you drink the stuff or anything, but it seems very, very non-toxic
5:34
There's no odor. It's very easy to get along with. It doesn't dry particularly fast, which is a good thing
5:45
And you might be wondering, why couldn't I do this with regular paint
5:49
I've got some white house paint in the basement. Can I just put it on a stained surface and let it dry and then..
5:58
and then work my way through. It's a little bristle from the brush there
6:02
The answer is no you can And that because modern paints of the sort that you might put on your house are designed to resist wearing so they don distress very well at all They made to resist wear which is what you want on a on a wall or a ceiling or something in your house
6:21
but it's not what we want when we intend to sand through and
6:28
make it look pretty in a worn-out antique kind of way. Get another bristle here. It's not unusual. I like to use these inexpensive
6:41
disposable brushes. They're about a dollar each or less than a dollar. I wash
6:48
them out if I'm using anything that's washable, but if I'm using a solvent-based
6:55
product, I'll just discard the brush. I'd rather throw at the brush than dirty, you
7:02
half a quart of mineral spirits or something and have to have to dispose of that
7:11
So I've done everything I can on this piece now. You'll notice a couple of things
7:16
Breast marks are pretty obvious. That will get less so as this dries, but there still will be some dark streaks from kind of the low part of the application after just one coat
7:31
So if I was going to coat this and I intended just to keep it undistressed with a kind of, you know, just an opaque paint
7:40
then I would give it another coat. But for now, I probably don't need to give it another coat
7:46
I might coat it again, depending on how it looks when it dries, before I go to distress it
7:52
Right here, I'm going to wait and let this dry. And in this video, we're going to come back when it's dry, and then I'm going to show you the distressing process
7:59
So stay tuned for that. We're just going to put it aside. I'm going to let it dry for at least half a day, maybe a day
8:07
And then I'll show you how to use abrasion to bring out that nice distressed antique look that just keeps getting better over time
8:20
So here we are back again. The white chalked paint is now completely dry and I'm ready to do a little bit of distressing
8:26
If you remember there was some dark stain underneath this to help the distressing show through
8:32
And as I explained earlier in the video, you can see some brush marks here
8:37
This is just where the chalked paint is thinner in some places than another where the bristles used to be
8:44
Now that may or may not be a problem if you're distressing. Certainly it is a problem if you're not distressing
8:50
And there's some people who use chalk paint and out paint and don't distress it at all because it's flat
8:55
And when you get it in colors is kind of an antique pastel color kind of thing, which looks nice
9:02
So you don't necessarily need to distress it. But we're going to distress it now
9:07
Depending on how much distressing I going to do those lines may or may not be a problem I just going to go ahead now since this is just a sample just to show you how things look
9:18
So, distressing is essentially controlled wear. It's a bit of an artistic process because you have to decide where the wear is going to show through and where it's not, and how much
9:30
And so it's a matter of opinion and judgment. But essentially, it comes down to two things
9:35
sanding by hand and sanding with a machine. Quarter sheet finishing sander is what you want to use
9:44
Don't use anything more aggressive, so that would be a random orbit sand or even a small 5-inch one
9:49
Too aggressive. So this is just about right. And you don't want to use coarse sandpaper
9:54
It's going to be fairly fine. I've got a piece of 220 here. There's 220 on the sander
10:02
I've got a piece of 180 here too. We can try that by hand. It's just a matter of judgment and really getting going
10:10
So before I use the machine, I just want to show you something quickly here. This is what I was telling you about before
10:15
Look at that. Look at all that. That is what you want in a distressable paint
10:21
And that will never happen with modern paints because they're designed to resist this
10:26
They're designed to be tough. So you can't sand them like this
10:32
Now, I'm already starting to go through there. See some of the sort of that distressing kind of appearance
10:39
Once again, as I said, it's a judgment call. Depending on what you're distressing, you have to use your imagination to think where
10:49
where, where could have happened more thoroughly than other places, and you kind of simulate that
10:55
But let's just see what the sander will do as we continue. Well, that didn't take long, did it
11:21
That's probably about as far as I would take this. If you remember earlier in the video, there was a shot of a white pine wood trunk
11:30
It was originally, it's a purchased item. I didn't make it, but it was finished dark
11:35
chalk painted it white, distressed it. It looks something like this. It doesn't take very much. And as you can see in this case, there really would have been no need for a second coat because those
11:47
brush marks, well, they're mostly gone now and the ones that are there just kind of fit in to this sort of worn surface
11:56
And you can see, you can see how the stained color came through. If I had done this on the other
12:05
side wouldn't look nearly as nice because we wouldn't have the darkness showing through
12:09
So there you go, the distressable finish using the chalked paint like this or milk paint
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