Klumzi Mom Designs: Craft desk chalk paint disaster.... Or was it?

So I've been working on creating my craft desk. I got the initial plans from ana-white.com, but it still wasn't exactly what I wanted. So you know me, I moded it! Yes that's a word, right?!?! I needed drawers so I added them :)

I built and painted the bookcase stands that the desktop sits on. That was no biggie deal. Then I cut out the plywood and started to paint it. Well latex paint always shows brush marks, which is why I used a mini roller! But the roller was leaving marks too. I kept having to sand down the prior coat and then I'd go too deep and snag up a patch of paint. Ugh!

So since I can only work a couple hours at a time (during the twins' nap time) I figured I better come up with a different idea. I've been searching the Internet for a paint that lays flat and is relatively inexpensive (because hey this girls on a budget) and found chalk paint. It's the latest craze for making your furniture look old (distressing) but that's not what I wanted it for. Everyone was raving about how it dries flat, no bumps, no prep. I though this was perfect, all I have to do is go buy unsanded grout and add it to my existing paint and voila! I ended up getting a paint mixer you can attach to your power drill, thinking I was clever!

So I add the paint, unsanded grout, a little water and start mixing... And mixing... Trying to get allll the little clumps of the unsanded grout to mix in with the paint and water mix. It looked like krusteaz pancake batter! Finally it was a little less lumpy than before but I figured I could pick out the lumps. I started slapping the chalk paint on and it was disastrous! There were so many little lumps in the mixture I immediately thought I was going to have to sand the layer off and start over from scratch.

I let the layer dry completely... Went to the garage and looked at it and it was flat in areas and in the others there were little bumps all over the place. So I started sanding with 320 grit and it wasn't doing anything, so I started cleaning up about ready to scratch the whole project when I thought, what if I tried wet sanding it? And that's when I turned the disaster into a masterpiece! It was almost like plaster. I was able to shape the chalk paint.

Then next day I made a new batch of chalk paint by mixing the unsanded grout and water first, making sure I got a less lumpy consistency and added the paint and slapped a couple more coats of chalk paint on, while wet sanding in between coats. It was such a relief that it worked! This project took me so long to complete because of the limited amount of time I had to work on it.

Now I have been applying miniwax's polycrylic clear coat on it and my third coat is drying now! I'm so excited!!! I've got the whole desk in my room assembled and ready for the desk top to be put on :) and it looks so nice :)