Refinishing furniture

[Marcus]

Had a go at refinishing an old bookshelf the last couple weeks. It started out as an old shelf with several coats of paint that had been in my garage for 12 years. My pretty lady wanted a fancy new bookshelf, so I figured I'd try to do one for her myself before spending the money.

To start out, the shelf looked like this.

[Marcus]

After some sanding and some repairs with wood filler and some online searching about what she liked, I found a local place that sells chalk paint. I bought a few different colors and some wax and got started. This is after one gray base coat with two white coats on top.

[Marcus]

Decided on a distressed look. Something to make it look old and worn, but in the colors she was looking for. So after a big mess and a few hours with some sand paper, I got this.

[Rem700]

Looks good! The wife and I have been refinishing furniture lately. Made some cool stuff for surprisingly cheap.

[Marcus]

I still need to put on a coat of wax because this type of paint doesn't seal. I'm pretty happy so far and I'll add a finished pic when I get the wax on.

If I had to do it again, I won't add the third coat of paint since I'm pretty sure most of it got sanded off. I also think I'd like to try a cheaper product. The one I used worked well, but was expensive. I have quite a few more projects I'd like to tackle in my "free" time. I'd like to end up with a few product and technique reviews.

[Marcus]

Looks good! The wife and I have been refinishing furniture lately. Made some cool stuff for surprisingly cheap.

Thanks!

Feel free to post any of your projects in here too.

[ssracer]

Nice

[JustShootIt]

Looks good...

Our house is full of homemade and semi homemade stuff like this..along with old/repurposed stuff

Good times

[Toddstang]

Good job!

[nemo]

Looks good to me. Nice job.

[Dave1965]

Three of my cousins make a living doing stuff like that. One started a store in Nashville called Southern Honey Workshop, and her sister moved to Nebraska started one and a cousin has one in east TN. They go "picking" for old cheap furniture and use their own line of chalk paint to make it newer. The one in TN also sells it to the show "Nashville" and other Video makers and does pretty good at it.

[Marcus]

Thought I might update this since I finally finished the wax on the bookshelf and actually started my next project.

[Marcus]

I used Annie Sloan clear wax over the paint. The wax seals the paint. Chalk paint never actually seals, so even after almost 2 months, the surface remained soft enough to rub off if treated roughly. It also wouldn't stand up to any moisture.
I used a regular automotive wax applicator. The special brush that's recommended is like $35. Not an expense I felt was necessary since my shelf didn't have many nooks and crannies to work wax into.

[Marcus]

The wax went on really well. It applies much thinner than car wax and is rubbed off in much the same way. After a few hours of drying, the surface is incredibly smooth and hard. Due to the sanding, it had a glass like smoothness. It's actually possible to matte the finish a little bit, but I was happy with the look as it was.
The pics look no different than before the wax, but I may try to get some posted when I can. Suffice it to say I was happy with the result and more importantly so was my girl. I still believe that the same effect can be achieved with cheaper materials. My next project will start with cheap acrylic paint and I'll only use the chalk paint for the top coat and the wax on top. I'll post pics of the new project AFTER Christmas since it's supposed to be a surprise gift.