I long for a little beach cottage by the shore, but until then I’m creating weathered coastal decor for my home in the mountains! What are the elements of Weathered Coastal? Sun-bleached blues and grays, chippy and peeling paint and nautical or ocean motifs. This vintage child’s chair has it all! Here are my tips for adding this look to your chalk painted furniture or home decor.
Supplies
- Dixie Belle White Lightning Cleaner
- Sanding Sponge
- Wood U Bend Mould
- Tite Bond Wood Glue
- Dixie Belle Mud
- Dixie Belle Silk All-in-One Mineral Paint in Bay Breeze
- Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral Paint in Gravel Road
- Dixie Belle Crackle Finish
- Synthetic Brush
- La Petite Brush
- Best Dang Wax in Clear and Grunge Gray
- Nautical Life Transfer
Prep before You Paint
I’ve included detailed prep instructions in my blog The Basics of Chalk Painting. Basically, the steps include making any necessary repairs to ensure your piece is structurally sound and cleaning and de-glossing with White Lightning. In this case, the top of the chair back was broken so I glued it back together and hid the crack with a mould from WoodUbend . This was a flat piece that I heated with my heat gun to fit the curvature of the chair and then affixed with Tite Bond Wood Glue. If your mould doesn’t lie flush, you can fill in the edges with Dixie Belle Mud which comes in White, Brown or Black. I used White since I was painting a light color.
In addition, since I opted for Bay Breeze, from the Silk line, I scuff sanded with a 220-grit sanding sponge. Silk contains a built in primer equivalent to one-coat of BOSS, Dixie Belle’s blocking primer. In this case, one coat was sufficient since I didn’t expect bleed thru. For more about bleed thru, and how to prevent it, please see How to Paint White Furniture, since white is notorious for bleed thru!
The Base Coat
I started with 2 coats of Bay Breeze, a soft blue with white and gray undertones. For best results, apply with a dry synthetic brush and allow at least an hour for your paint to dry between coats. Unlike the application of chalk mineral paint, there’s no misting of your brush or paint when using Silk. Aim for long even strokes, without working your paint too much, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how brush strokes level out with drying (that’s the “self-leveling” feature.)
The Furniture Transfer
While this step is completely optional, I love how the Nautical Life Transfer reinforced my theme of Weathered Coastal. If you’re worried about your transfer shifting during application, some painters tape will hold it in place. This transfer was a stand alone image, so I just had to center and apply. If your transfer has multiple images, I recommend cutting, without removing the adhesive backing, and taping the images to your project to play with different layouts. Begin burnishing the transfer from the middle and work out. If you start to peel off the backing and your transfer has not adhered, just lay it back down and burnish some more
Creating Crackle
For a complete primer on Crackle, please refer to my blog DIY: Crackle Paint Finish. Some of the highlights:
- The thicker the crackle, the more cracks!
- Apply with a chip brush…it’s sticky and you won’t want to clean it
- When you paint over the crackle, cross hatching enhances the cracks and back brushing diminishes the effect
In this case I opted for Gravel Road as my “peek thru” color and used a thick layer of crackle. After the first round, I decided I wanted more an even more weathered look. This photo shows the second application (the shine on Gravel Road is the dried crackle).
Finishing Touches
I often opt for dark waxes and glazes to add age and “grunge” to my projects. My blog Chalk Paint Finishing Techniques covers these techniques, as well as some of my other favorites. Here, I applied Best Dang Wax in Clear with the La Petite Brush . This is a new brush from Dixie Belle which has quickly become my favorite way to apply wax! The application of clear wax allows me to move and wipe back subsequent colored wax applications. I have also used Satin Clear Coat to seal my paint prior to applying colored waxes. In this case, I wanted a matte finish, like the chair had been exposed to beach weather! To complete my weathered coastal look, I used a stiff artist’s brush to apply Grunge Gray Wax to the nooks and crannies of both the chair and WooduBend mould.
