With only 12 days to go before we hit the road and tour some of the US of A, painting the bottom half of the kitchen cabinets seemed like a great idea to me.  Too bad my husband didn’t agree with me and most of my friends.  So I listened to reason for once and didn’t start painting the cabinets.  Instead I decided to paint my kitchen chairs.  A few years ago they were honey oak but after a few coats of black spray paint and some poly they were looking 10o times better.  You can imagine the abuse these chairs suffer on a daily basis with 4 kids and 2 dogs that try to scratch at leftover crumbs left on the seats.  I also may have occasionally used these chairs for painting.  Ruby may also have mistaken the legs for bones a few times.  The abuse was taking it’s toll.

My first attempt was to make a DIY AS Chalk Paint with Plaster of Paris.  I found a recipe, thought their furniture looked great so gave it a whirl.  I browsed my paint store cans in the basement and thought maybe the coral from our nightstands would be cool.  The paint did not go on well, did not dry well at all and did not cover the black well.  Paint fail!  (Thank you instagram for capturing my paint failure when I’m in the middle of a mess and don’t want to head inside for the nice, expensive camera.)

Back to the drawing board!  I grabbed the Galapegos Turquoise from the cloffice and mixed some plaster of paris and water again, added in the paint and went to town on my chairs.  The reason I wanted to try this chalk paint is that there is no sanding, priming or prep really at all except for making sure the furniture you are painting is clean.

They turned out much better this time around!  I did not distress the chairs at all but just rubbed some minwax wood polish over them.   I posted this pic on fb the other night for feedback and why does my mudroom look like the color of bile?

I’m not in love with the look of the chairs, the paint color seems almost green in some light.  I added some lemons to the table with a placemat to see if it helped any.  Once the bottoms of the cabinets are painted I think I might like the table and chairs.

The table color is staying for now, I’m waiting until after the cabinets are painted before I decide if I like the chairs/table with the cabinets.  Then, after painting the bottom cabinets gray, it  is either find new stools for the counter or repainting those ones and finding some oilcloth fabric for the seat cushions.

Have you tried painting with AS Chalk paint or have you made your own?  I’d love to hear what you think about it!

UPDATE:  You can see our almost finished master bedroom here.

Last night I decided to paint our bedroom which I was thinking about doing soon when I posted about it a few days. I like to paint on spur of the moment occasions, without much planning or prepping.  The total opposite of my hubby who admitted last night that he likes how I take charge and get stuff done.  He’s a planner and said he’d think about and plan for painting but would probably never actually do it. That’s why we work so well together!

I knew I wanted to paint the walls a navy and after buying three different samples of paint, I finally just headed out to the paint store and thought I’d decide what color to do while I was there. Earlier this week I had some BM paint samples mixed at Home Depot with the Martha Stewart paint.  Yesterday I stopped and purchased a third sample but this one was a Benjamin Moore sample.  The difference in the paint samples blew me away.  The Benjamin Moore sample was awesome.  The other two samples, mediocre at best.  I know that I don’t like Behr Premium Plus Ultra Paint and I refuse to buy it ever again.  I thought maybe Martha Stewart paint would be ok but after using the Benjamin Moore sample, I’m never going back!  On a side note,  I used the Behr paint on my dining room wall and after four months of the paint on the wall, this is what happened, you could literally peel it off the wall.  In the first picture is the large pieces of paint I peeled off.  The second picture is my wall with the brown paint underneath and where I quite easily was able to peel off the white paint which was on top of the brown.

In this last picture you could see how it just peeled off the wall.  I was so angry but I though maybe I had done something wrong.  I checked with my neighbor who is a professional painter and I did everything right. So I decided to do a little research and I am not the only one to have problems with this paint.  Some poor guy painted his entire exterior of his house and had it peeling off.  I did call Behr and they would gladly replace my paint with some new stuff.  I said no thanks, I’ll just repaint in something else.  I did end up repainting and with the Benjamin Moore Interior Paint  which I had used for the top part of my dining room when we first moved in.  I didn’t have any more problems with peeling paint.  I know that I might have had just a bad batch of paint but I’d rather spend $10 more and buy Benjamin Moore Regal Select Interior which I first used in my cloffice a few weeks ago.
When it was time to pick which brand of paint to use in our Master Bedroom, I knew I really wanted to use the Benjamin Moore again.  So I set off for the paint store and bought Benjamin Moore Regal Select Interior in Hale Navy. 
I painted my bedroom last night in about three hours or so from start to finish.  The paint looks amazing, went on like a dream and didn’t smell, at all.  It rolls on beautifully, doesn’t splatter at all and cleans up great too.  I couldn’t believe how easily it washed off my hands when I was done.  I painted my entire bedroom, two coats and still have about 1/4 to 1/3 of a gallon of paint left.  My bedroom is 15×15 or maybe a little bigger.  The guy at the paint store told me I would need two gallons of paint but I was being cheap and only bought one.  I’m so glad I did, I have plenty left for touch ups or even a little project. The best part of all this though is, my walls look amazing!  Even the hubby commented on how great the paint looked and if he could tell a difference, then this stuff really is amazing!  He would much prefer I buy the $25 gallon paint from Menards to a $45 gallon paint but I think after tonight, he is a believer in Benjamin Moore too!
I would like to state that I am in no way being compensated by Benjamin Moore for this post.  I am just sharing a product that I love and I would highly recommend to anyone.  In fact, my friend Anne called me yesterday to ask me what brand of paint I use and I told her immediately, Benjamin Moore.  Yes, it is a bit more expensive than something you would buy at a big box retailer like Home Depot or Lowes but I love this paint and think it’s well worth the price!
I thought I’d share a sneak peek with you this morning of the bedroom. My camera battery is dying but I managed to get a few quick pictures last night and one again this morning.  I can’t wait to paint the trim white, the color will really pop then!  Of course this is another keeping it real post, with tools on the bed in one picture and a laptop in another picture.  This is just the tip of the iceberg in this bedroom transformation so stay tuned!

I am in love with this paint color and these pictures don’t do the color justice.  I think part of it is the ugly oak trim but that will be gone soon enough!  I might even get working on that this weekend.  And before I forget, if you aren’t following me on facebook yet, I do post pictures on there  or a sneak peek of what I’m working on that sometimes don’t make it to the blog.  So click on my fb button on the right hand side of my blog under the follow button, I’d love to chat with you on there!