The Bookshelf: Refinishing Old Memories with Chalk Paint

My first attempt at using chalk paint. Good memories with this bookshelf that's almost as old as memory itself for my sisters and me...

From the way it sat in our childhood bedroom to its new form today using 

homemade chalk/plaster paint and Johnson's soft wax, I give you, The Bookshelf.

I used a plaster-of-Paris base with S.W. tester quart of an off-white I liked. 

After paint, before stain. I learned the hard way that I really should have done it the other way around:

~~ Chalk paint goes over anything. Stain does not. ~~

It would have saved me hours! Because, I also learned, blue tape doesn't work very well to keep prevent stain leakage - or any leakage, for that matter - unless you're willing to spend a very long time pressing down every millimeter of the edge. Which is not possible in dark, tight corners. I would have been better off to stain the shelves first, and paint over anything "outside the lines" with my miracle paint. Oh well. Lessons learned! 

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For the shelves, I wanted to use stain from my own walnut trees, but it would have been water-based and raised the grain (which meant lots of waiting and sanding…), so I went with a Minwax oil-based instead. (I've since switched to a new gel stain though, and it was love at first rub.)

What I didn't know when I took this picture was that the stain had seeped under the blue tape...so, this is about 4 steps from the end instead of the 1 it should have been.

Also, you can't see that it fell over in a wind storm one day and the back got cracked, adding another 3 steps before the end. Thanks to my patient husband who benevolently looked on while my project dominated the back porch with nary a word of frustration or hurry.....(not!)

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And...the final product! 

I distressed the edges using a 220 grit sandpaper. (P.S. LOVE the 220!)

  

I especially like how the chalk paint made kind of a ripple in the corner here (below) and I even left some of the stain seepage because it looked like aging.

Finally, over the painted areas I hand-rubbed on Johnson's paste wax 

(natural color; no stain added to darken).

 After the wax dried, I buffed it. The result is a super luxurious smooth, satiny finish.

Wipe-on poly did the same for the shelves.