Military Themed Dresser- Part 1 (CHALK PAINT)

Chalk paint? What the heck is that?  You mean chalkboard paint?  I'm sure you are asking yourself these questions and I don't blame you. I had no idea what chalk paint was until I entered "blog land."  I have seen so many blogs raving about this paint so I knew I had to try it.  It is called Annie Sloan Chalk Paint {ASCP} and it is sold online here {for readers in my neck of the woods}.

Here are the reasons why ASCP is so great:
1.  No priming or sanding is necessary,  I REPEAT, no priming or sanding is necessary.  As soon as I read that on their website I didn't believe it but it's true, it can stick to almost anything... FINALLY!
2. It has low VOCs which means it is environmentally friendly and has next to NO odor.
3. Perfect paint to distress with because just with a light sand it comes off like chalk {hence the name}.
4. Dries to the touch in 30 minutes and you are good to recoat after 2 hours. This is so exciting for me because I am so impatient when it comes to a paint project, mostly because I am so excited to see it all finished.
5. It goes a long way.  I am about to show you a dresser I painted this week and I only used a quarter of the can.  It is pricey, $35/can(quart size), but considering I can probably paint 3 dressers with it and I don't have to buy primer, it is totally worth the money.
6. Lastly, you can mix the paint with other colors or with water to give it a whitewashed look. GENIUS!

I am so in love with this paint!  I cannot wait to order more. It comes in 28 different colors and I've already got my eyes on a few of them.

Alrighty then,  so here is my nephew, Tommy's dresser {which used to be my brother's-keep it in the family}. Don't mind the missing drawer pull, I had to remove it to measure for the new pulls.

The plan is to create a camouflage themed bedroom for this little 3yr. old who loves everything about being a boy. {Trucks, dart guns, dinosaurs,legos, transformers, spiderman, did I say transformers, he is obsessed} My brother in law is a Marine and my sister and I both thought it'd be fun to create this room for Tommy so that he can be proud of his Dad. For starters, I wanted to give this dresser a beat up  look.  I chose ASCP's Chateau Gray and I had all intentions of distressing and then maybe giving it some military themed stenciling or vinyl lettering like I saw here on another blog.....

I love finding inspiration like this, it opens my mind up to so many more ideas.  For instance, after seeing this I was thinking it'd be cool to use Big Tom's Platoon number on the dresser. It's then incredibly personal and I think Big Tom will be proud of it too.  I can't wait to see what we all decide, it's going to be so meaningful no matter what we do.

Let the process begin...

 Bye bye ugly wood grain

 It does look very streaky when you first put it on but it dries smooth and you don't see any brush strokes.  I used a brush on the whole dresser.

This paint is amazing, I only had to do 1 coat and it only took me 30 minutes to coat the entire dresser and drawers.  I waited an hour before I waxed it just to make sure it was completely dry. {so freakin fabulous to be able to FINISH a paint project in an afternoon} Annie Sloan recommends using a wax to give her paint a nice hard finish. I used this tutorial to help me.  The trick to distressing is to wax first then distress then wax again.  Waxing only took me about 15 minutes...

I only used a couple dabs for the ENTIRE dresser. Don't use too much because then your dresser will be tacky for days/weeks. If you put too much on just quickly wipe it down with an old DRY t-shirt.  Here I am doing my second coat of wax and I am so so so HAPPY with how easy this is, THANK YOU ASCP!  I know I skipped out on telling you about the sanding/distressing part but that was just me taking a sanding block and rubbing every edge of the dresser to give it this aged look that I LOVE.

Did I mention this color is exactly the kind of camo green I was looking for? SO STOKED... {not so stoked about that switch plate, thank you old homeowners}

 LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

I'll be back soon with this dresser all pimped out.
{drawer liners, stencils, pulls, dresser top accessories}

Anyone else obsessed with Chalk Paint? I would love to hear if anyone has mixed it with other colors.  I am so excited to hit up the Goodwill Store in search for some more fun projects like this one.