Hello friends!

We have this little dresser thing in our living room that I have been dying to paint for years.  I bought it at a yard sale awhile back for $25 and it has been that nagging project that I have been dying to start.  It is so dark!  And it smells.  On top of that, the handles didn’t match, so it looked especially funky.  

So I have been seeing a lot of green on Instagram lately – green cabinets, green bookshelves, green tables.  And I fell in love. I’ve always wanted to paint our little dresser thing a fun color, but couldn’t find a color that wasn’t too loud (I’m a neutral kinda girl) or that fit with the rest of our decor.  When I started seeing all of this green, I knew that it would be perfect! Here is some of my inspiration:

I really love that sage-y green color.  Kind of obsessed, really.  I first grabbed a few paint swatches from Lowe’s, and spent a few days trying to decide.  Then, I *happen* to be in Target 🙂 and saw that there is a Magnolia Chalk Paint in Olive Grove that looked pretty close to what I was looking for.  It actually took a second trip to Target to commit to plunking down the $$!

 

So, if you haven’t used chalk paint before, it is amazing to use on furniture.  For my dresser, I just gave it a quick light sand with a 220 grit sandpaper to get some of the varnish off, then wiped it down to remove all of the dust.  If my husband were doing this project, he probably would have blown it out with his air compressor, then used a tacky cloth to get all of the dust out. But, I only had a 2 hour window to do this during nap time. 🙂

Chalk paint is great because there is really very little prep, you don’t have to worry too much about paint strokes showing, its easy to distress, usually it only takes one coat, and you end up with a matte finish.  

Our dog Belle is always by my side. 🙂

I thought that it was a little odd that the paint was looking really light, since the can had the darker green swatch on the front.  I let it dry, then distressed it lightly with the 220 grit sandpaper.  I added a dark wax on top to give it a little sheen, make it a little more durable, and to make the distressing stand out a little.  I was also hoping that the wax would make the paint look a little darker.

I really loved the distressed details and it immediately brightened up the space.  But I was still disappointed that the color wasn’t really what I wanted, and not the same as the can showed.  I felt like I mixed it pretty well before I started.  I noticed on the back there was a little disclaimer that said the color might vary from the color shown on the can.  I let it sit for a day or two, hoping that I would come to love it, but it kept nagging me! I really loved the distressed look, but it wasn’t the color that I was hoping for.

Meanwhile, I saw @melissaimback and @baker_nest ‘s pictures of their cabinets on Instagram and really loved that color! They used Fusion Mineral Paint, which is a Zero VOC paint that like chalk paint, requires minimal prep. It also leaves a matte finish. The colors are SOOO pretty! I really liked Bayberry and Lichen (both are a sage-y green), but English Rose is also so gorgeous! Maybe a future little girls room?? 😉

I found that Lost and Found Decor sells it online.  You can order a tester to sample your color, but I decided to just go with it and ordered a pint of Bayberry! I ordered it on a Friday and got it that SUNDAY.  That is AMAZING.  I didn’t even know that you could get packages on Sunday.

The color looked really similar to the Olive Grove color for Magnolia Home.

I basically did the same prep as I did with the chalk paint – took the 220 grit sandpaper over it to rough up the wax and wiped it down.  The Fusion Paint came with instructions on the prep that you would need to do based on what was already on your furniture.  *Technically* it said that I should use a mineral spirit to remove the coat of wax, but I ain’t got time for that. Again, 2 hour nap time to get this done. 🙂

A big difference I noticed is that the chalk paint is thick and the Fusion Mineral Paint is more watery.  It covered really well though and went on fine with the little prep that I did.

I was a little nervous about the brush strokes showing up, but I removed some of the excess paint on the brush and went back over it very lightly and the brush strokes went away.  The nice thing about the mineral paint is that it dried really quickly! I did have to put a second coat on because there were some spots I missed.

At this point, you could do some distressing, and the paint comes with a little card that tells you different ways you can distress it.  I really liked how it finished though, so I didn’t do any distressing.  I added the Oxford knobs and pulls from Hickory Hardware that I ordered from Walmart.com!

Here is the final result.  I LOVE it.  It is the perfect color I had in mind and looks soooo much better than before! My husband even said it looks good.  And that it doesn’t smell anymore.  That’s a win in my book!

I would love to see your results if you use the chalk paint or mineral paint! Share your pictures with me on Instagram – @lifeinthebigwoods