Inspiration For Your Weekend

Need some motivation and inspiration for your weekend? Looking for a new hobby? Can you not even WAIT until Arrested Development comes back on May 26th?

Lucky for all of us, i already have Netflix, and my amazing Aunt, a self-proclaimed chalk painting and distressing addict, sent me pictures of some of her revamping projects. She surfs Craigslist and also keeps an eye out for discarded furniture that can be refinished and perhaps re-purposed. Here are a few things that have been chalk painted. NOT chalkboard painted, which is all over Pinterest like some sort of rampant STD. Chalk paint produces such a nice velvety finish, and my aunt finishes most of her projects off with a nice distress. I'd also like to mention that she makes her own chalk paint* as opposed to selling one of her kidneys to afford the store-bought kind. Smart lady. Now onto her projects...

Here's a dresser she picked up. I wonder if it was the drawer faces that won her over, because that's my favorite part.

And after chalk painting and some distress, it becomes the piece that i plan to steal the next time i visit. The challenge will be finding a bag big enough to carry it out unnoticed.

This coffee table has a special place in my heart since we thrifted its twin for $10 a few years ago:

She painted the legs white and black washed the top. I really love it. Ours is...not like this, unfortunately. Try Crayola yellow. Dammit, Chris...

 Here's an end table that was a pretty solid street find. Man i love Queen Anne legs.

She chalk painted the bottom, and black washed the top. And you pretty much can't beat that drawer pull, so she just removed it and spray painted it. Pretty sexy.

Here's an old sewing table she picked up:

After the chalking and distressing:

Here are a few After pictures of some other projects she did, like white-washing her brick fireplace that was formerly red:

This dresser was a Craigslist find. First, she chalk painted it white, then antiqued it with stain to use as a buffet in the dining room. So refinished AND re-purposed. And i never would have though to top the chalk paint with stain, that's thinking outside the box:

Check out this sexy wardrobe! Chalk painted and distressed:

I've got some pretty thrifty relatives, don't i? Give that woman a paintbrush and she's unstoppable.

*This blog you'll find after the link doesn't belong to my aunt nor myself and we have no affiliations, although it is wonderful and i do love it. There are plenty of other recipes on the interwebs - including ones that use grout - so Google away.