DIY Chalk Paint Cabinet Makeover

Squeal! I am in love with how this cabinet turned out! I honestly considered getting rid of the cabinet before…so glad I didn’t! This resides in my dining room, which we use for dining (obviously), but also where we do our home school and where we sit around the table and enjoy games with the family or with friends. I shared my DIY no-sew curtains a few weeks back, and at some point in the near future I will be painting the walls in here bright white. I also need to recover my dining room chairs and stain my table…but for now, I am super excited to have this cabinet looking so darn cute in here, where before, it was an eyesore that I kept in the back corner and tried to hide it.

Here is the before of this cabinet. It was black, it was covered in scratches and it was just boring.

A little DIY chalk paint and a few hours of work, and I have a cabinet that I absolutely LOVE. I moved it to the other wall so it’s what you see when you come in. SOOO much better!

Here is how I did it. First I gathered my supplies. You’ll need plaster of paris (found in the painting and wall patching area of the home improvement store), a can of paint in your choice of color, some Furniture Finishing Wax for when you are all done, a paint brush or roller and a paint tray. You will also need something to mix the paint in, or you will be making small batches in your paint tray and have to mix it 20 times before you’re done. Don’t ask me how I know that. 😉

You need to mix paint, water and Plaster of Paris together in small batches anyway though, because you need to use it right away, it won’t save.

I wasn’t super precise in how I mixed it, there are so many “recipes” out there for the perfect chalk paint, but what I did was approx. 1/4 cup of Plaster of Paris and 1/8 cup of water. Then I would add about 1 cup of paint.

Because this was a BLACK cabinet, I ended up having to put a few coats on. Probably really only 2 good coats, and then the last one just touching up spots. Be sure to wait for the paint to dry before you do the next coat…best thing about chalk paint besides no sanding? It dries super fast!

The inside of the cabinet was annoying to paint, so I didn’t put as much effort in that as I did on the parts that actually showed. Besides, I wanted it to look chippy and aged, so it worked out well. When I was done painting, I rubbed off the paint around the edges randomly with a fine sandpaper. I LOVE this!

If you look at where the arrow is pointing you can see that there are darker spots of yellow. I wanted this to be a little darker in spots so I took some darker yellow acrylic paint and watered it down and rubbed it on with a rag. I let it dry for a couple minutes and then wiped it off with a damp towel. I did it until I got the color I wanted. This gave it a kind of glazed look using what I already had on hand.

After that, I used the MinWax Finishing Wax and rubbed that all over the paint. I let it dry for 30 minutes and then wiped it off. This protects your paint and gives it a harder finish. I wouldn’t recommend skipping this step, it really makes your hard work pop and look more professional. Then I added some cute handles to the cabinet doors to finish it off. It’s like a whole new cabinet! If I saw this at a store I would want it bad…luckily I already have it, so yay!

Here’s the before and after again…have you used a DIY chalk paint recipe that you like? I want to chalk paint all the things in my house! Next up my piano! 🙂

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Tiffany

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Tiffany is a stay at home mom to four ridiculously cute kids and wife to one smoking hot McDreamy lookalike. She loves the color white, chocolate chip cookies and sunshine. She is the founder of Making the World Cuter, where she loves to decorate, make cute gifts and fun printables.