Trying Martha Stewart's Chalk-y Paint

Martha Stewart has come out with her version of the popular

chalk-y finish paint.  She calls it "Vintage Decor Paint" with a

subtitle of "matte chalk finish". The instructions say that you 
can "create a matte, chalk finish with this no-prep paint". 

It is readily available at craft stores in a variety of colors for

about $10 for 8 ounces.  Of course if you use coupons, you 

can get the paint at a lower price. Michael's Craft Store had a
 coupon for 25% off of this new paint product line so I used
 that  to purchase two colors of paint and a container of

 the clear vintage decor wax. The line also has a dark wax. 

My original plan was to have a base of the green (Eucalyptus)

with a top coat of blue (River Rock) and distress the finish so

that some of each color would show on the chairs. 

The main subjects of my experimenting with MS Vintage Decor

Paint are two rocking chairs that were given to me by a neighbor.

They are wooden chairs with fibre rush woven seats and backs. 

They had been painted white, then black and now they need

a new coat of paint.

The black paint is ready to just fall off in some places. 

I lightly sanded the rocking chairs outside (even though the paint

said it was no-prep, common sense tells you to go on and sand

off the flaking paint so your new paint won't fall off too). 

After sanding, some interesting places started showing up on 

the chairs. It seems a shame to entirely cover up the other 

colors (wood, white and black) that were emerging. 

For the first coat with the MS Vintage Paint in Eucalyptus, I put 

it on in a dry brush manner in some places letting the original

colors show through also.  Another technique that was used was

more of a wiping distressing where the green paint was painted on

and allowed to dry for about five minutes and then wiped off. 

If the green paint dried too long, it did not wipe off easily so more

of a wet distressing technique was used.  Since the chalk paint is

water-soluble, if you use a damp rag to wipe over it after it has 

dried, some of the paint will come off of the rag.  Some places

this worked well and some places too much (for my taste) of the

paint came off like in the photos below.

To fix this (if that bothers you), you can just put more paint over

the over-distressed part, let it dry, and then try lightly sanding  

with actual sand paper the next time to distress it.  The MS web-
 site suggests using 220 grit sandpaper to distress the paint with. 

When I got the first color on the first chair's wood parts, I realized

that I had to decide if I wanted to continue with the distressed look

(swapping one peeling paint look for another one) or to freshen

up the chairs with more of a one color look. 

I was just too in love with some of the multi-color places that

were developing to cover them up with more paint (even though

the distressed look takes longer to achieve). 

Here is a side-by-side comparison of one chair with some paint

on it and the other chair in it's original (to me) condition:

Opps! This picture reveals that I would rather drink beverages and paint chairs
than clean up my house.

I decided to ditch the cushions even though there were in good

condition because they were now too much of a blue-grey color

to look good on the green/blue chairs. 

Here are the chairs in progress:

yes, my husband is putting up with me painting in the house 'cause it is still hot outside in Alabama 
AND we still have mosquitos too. 

The green paint went on first and then the blue (River Rock)
paint was dry brushed on top of the green.  Also in some places
it was distressed by wiping or sanding to let the paint layers
 below come through and be seen. 

OK. So the paints are doing great and acting like other chalk
paints that I have used.  When I got through with painting, I 
tried the MS wax.  At first I though that it was easy to put on
because it was more like a paint consistency BUT it started to
take the paint off of the chairs even though I was using a soft 
brush to put it on. This is horrifying when you have worked to
get a certain distressed/layered paint look.  

I went to the MS Vintage Decor Paint website and on there it 
says not to put the wax on until the paint has dried for 24 hours.
The bottle does not mention this time frame. Then I repainted 
the portions where the wax took the paint off and waited 24 hours. 

The liquid wax took so long to dry.  The bottle said to put on a 
thin layer and remove the excess with a damp cloth.  Then you 
are supposed to wait another 24 hours if you want a second coat.

I thought this was too much time and trouble so I just went
 back to waxing with my cheap Johnson's paste wax that is
available even in grocery stores. Minwax Finishing Wax is
also inexpensive and is available at home improvement stores 
and Walmart. There are also premium waxes you can get in
the paint sections of home improvement stores.  They all seem
to work fine to me to seal the chalk paint finish. 

Just be aware that when painting a piece with chalk paint,
you do need to seal it with some type of wax or it will not 
hold up well.  I have never had a problem waxing a chalk
paint project as long as the paint is dry but it dries pretty
quickly. The chalk paint soaks up the wax so much that it
some times hard to see where you have waxed.  You can add
more coats (of the paste waxes) if you want it to have sheen.

Here are the rocking chairs after being painted and waxed. 

In the end, one chair ended up being more blue than the other. 
Each chair had its own unique places that emerged during the
sanding/painting/distressing process.  

With the fiber (paper) rush weaving I decided to go with 
alternating the blue and green colors but not in a definite
pattern.  The rush ended up looking kind of like blue and
green yarn to me.  I didn't try to cover the black completely.
I wasn't sure whether to wax the rush or not but I did and
after it soaked in to the paint, it did not feel waxy or like it
would get on people's clothes that sat on the chairs. 

Here are the chairs from behind.  Just like us, they have their 
quirks and differences so I'm not that concerned over them 
ending up slightly different colors overall. 

Not everyone trying the MS Vintage Decor Paint will want a 
layered or distressed look.  I pulled some old plastic pots out of 
the back back yard and gave them the "painting plastic" test
with the new line of paints. 

The smallest pot got painted a solid coat of River Rock blue and 
the largest post got a coat of Eucalyptus green.  The paint covered
the plastic well and stayed on even during the planting process.

Here are the painted and waxed pots:

The medium sized pot got a two-toned paint job of the green 
AND the blue and then got sanded lightly to expose the 
details on the pot. 

The two smaller pots got a coat of clear paste wax when 
their paint dried and the larger pot got a slightly tinted wax.

  I had read from Sherry at No Minimalist Here blog that you 
can add a little paint or stain to clear wax to make dark wax.  
This was the first time I had tried it making my own dark wax.

I just added a little dark brown acrylic
paint to a small amount of clear wax and stirred...it worked. 

 I will be braver about adding more color next time. 
It did not add much color to the pot when it was wiped on.

I like oranges and blues together so I got orange zinnas, mums
and marigolds to go in the chalk-y painted pots.  The pots,
 flowers and newly-painted rocking chairs will be a bright
                addition to the porch at my parent's apartment.                  

I would give an endorsement to the Martha Stewart Vintage 
Decor paints.  They covered well and also were pretty easy
to distress if you wanted to.  They were a reasonable price
(very reasonable if you have a coupon you can use).
  I still had paint left over in each bottle after these projects. 

The MS wax seemed overly complicated as to drying times, 
having  to wipe off excess with a damp rag, etc. but it did even-
tually dry and had a nice slight sheen to the places I had used it. 

(I purchased the products myself and have no association with the Martha Stewart or 
Plaid Paint companies...this is not a sponsored post.)

Peek Behind the Scenes at Miss Kopy Kat Blog

A big "thank you" to Lori from "Stonybrook House" blog

 for inviting me to join the DIY Blogland Tour!

I met Lori at the first Haven Conference for bloggers. She has been

an inspiration for me ever since then.  She lets me call her to ask

her opinion about blogging.  I think she is gorgeous inside and out. 

Lori likes to put a little bit of everything on her blog...DIYing, 

recipes, thrifting, organization and so much more!

 Recently she added a feature on her blog called 

"(My) Fashion After Forty" where she shares stylish but

 age-appropriate outfits and also inspiration thoughts.

Her most viewed blog post is one that she did on how to

 cleverly organize drawers with items you probably have on hand. 

DIY Drawer Organizer

My personal favorite project that Lori has done is wall art

done from pallet wood.  It has a line from a hymn on it "It is well

with my soul". She used power tools to make it! I'm impressed. 

OK. Now onto the required questions for bloggers on the

DIY Blogland Tour...

 1. What are you working on right now? 

Right now I am working on decorating my house and 

front yard/porch going from Summer into Fall.

 Although usually I am like the last blogger alive 

 getting a seasonal post  done, I had an early deadline 

for some Fall decorating  because a local magazine

 was coming to my house in August  to take some photos

 of me for a September issue.  I wasn't sure where in the

 house they would want the photos so I got some

 bare bones Fall decorating done.

I couldn't find ANY real mums, pumpkins, etc. for the photo 

shoot so I used all faux Fall stuff from my attic to decorate the

house for the shoot.  If you want to see the result of that exercise

you can click on "Go Faux It Fall Decorating" blog post. 

The local magazine came out!  I feel like "Miss September"!

Click here for a link to the "Boom!" magazine. 

It is a magazine for the "over 50" folks of which I am! 

 My husband nominated me to be in the magazine totally 

without my knowledge.  He told the editor about my blog,

the editor thought it would be a good story and then my

husband had to talk me into doing the feature. 

 My husband didn't even want me to start a blog in

 the beginning.  His first wife left him for someone she

 met on the internet so he was reluctant for me to have

 an internet presence.  He agreed if I would have an "alias". 

Are any of you old enough to remember the

 TV show "Gunsmoke"? 

 There was a character on the  show named  "Miss Kitty".

 I thought that alias name would go well with the name

 I had selected for my blog "Miss Kopy Kat". 

 Of course the magazine wanted to use my real name

 for the September article so now I can "come out of

the closet' and say that my real name is "Gayle".  

Actually I still AM in the closet 'cause that is where my 

computer is!  We turned a bedroom into an office/guest room

 and my computer where I write the blog is in that room. 

An example of what I am doing now is out by the mailbox.

Here is a photo of the mailbox area with planting bed at 

Labor Day:

Kinda scraggly with overgrown Green Envy zinnas (which 

were way too tall and not all that green).  Even though I had

 added some red coleus and orange blanket flowers to 

replace flowers that had died back from the Spring/Summer, 

they were not helping much in this hot sunny area.  

Some zinnas with lots of buds, mums and a pot of gerbera

daisies were added to the bed to start a Fall "vibe" to the bed. 

Pumpkins arrived in my local grocery store this weekend too so

I was able to add a few to the planting beds in the front yard to 

start the faux pumpkin patches for this year. 

Hopefully the orange zinnas will get over the shock 

of being planted and start letting all those buds

 start blooming to add Fall color. 

On the front porch I have started adding Fall colored coleus

in the urns to "fall-i-fy" them.  There is only so much room 

in the urns for planting and I don't want to rip out the things

that are still growing so I gradually add faux Autumn-colored

stems to the mix. 

I'm going to keep the hose wreath with Fall-ish

flowers on it up for a couple more weeks. It makes dragging out

the real hose everyday to water the plants in the front yard a little

more fun to look over and see it. Alabama stays hot even now.

In October I will put Halloween items out on the porch.

In November Halloween will come down and I will

 probably pile up pumpkins around the urns

 (with even more Fall faux stems by then) like I did last year.

2. How does my work differ from others?

I started my blog as a way to share ideas on how to make

inexpensive but classy-looking things for home decorating,

parties and even weddings so most of my posts are tutorials.

I look back on my early posts and they have 5-6 pictures in

them.  It has kind of evolved that now most of my posts have

LOTS (maybe too many?) of pictures to show detailed steps.

It seems that I post more pictures than other bloggers have 

and that may be a bad thing (it makes the post quite long)

 but that is what I have the urge to do right now. 

I don't expect readers to stop and stare at each picture when

scrolling down the post the first time but if they want to 

use the post to make something in the tutorial later, they 

will have lots of "go by" pictures to refer to. 

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

Oops! I answered part of this question in question 2...I like

to share what I know how to do and also my attempts at

learning how to do new things.  Maybe others out there would

like to know how to do them too and can use my experiments 

with crafting, etc. to achieve a high end look on a budget.

I'm not gonna lie...it is also gratifying to me to be able to 

share things that I have made with a larger "audience". 

On my front door this wreath maybe would have been seen

by 100 folks or so who drive by my house.

Since this tutorial on "How To Make A Curly Deco Mesh Wreath"

was posted two years ago over 600,000 folks have looked at it.

Some of my posts are not tutorials but vignettes or mantle

arrangements to seasonally decorate the house.  If we have 

company maybe 25 or so folks would see the arrangements.

 Putting them on a blog shares the work with more people.

"Masculine Fall Mantle" 

It's a "win-win"...I get to share my efforts with others and they 

in turn might get some ideas that they can use in their homes. 

4. How does your writing/creative process work?

When I see something in a magazine, in a store or online that

I really like but can't afford, I try to figure out a Do-It-Yourself

way to achieve a similar look. 

(But I'm talking about something within my skill level...

like I don't try to build my own furniture, etc.)

Between Hobby Lobby, Jo Anne's, Michaels, Hancock Fabric,

Home Depot or Lowe's, I can usually find the supplies that I

need to make the object.  Sometimes I buy the stuff to make

something and then never get around to it....I have more ideas

and intentions than I have time for!

I take lots of pictures of the item as it is being made then 

even more pictures of the object in the setting that it is going

to be used in.  Then I have oodles of pictures to decide which

ones to edit and use in the post. I would say that I write text

to go along with the pictures more than the other way around.

It takes me hours to do a blog post...wish I was quicker...

maybe I could get more posts done!  I still work full-time

as a nurse at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and have most 

of the responsibility of taking care of my elderly parents so

blogging has to take a back seat to those priorities. 

Sometimes I get discouraged about not having more time

for my blog and doing creative things.  I saw a quote about

happiness in life by Mandy Hale.  I have taken the liberty

to adapt it to happiness in blogging:

Now I want to introduce you to a blogging friend of mine,

Martina with the blog Northern Nesting.  She does a 

beautiful job decorating her home with great "finds" that

she shares with her readers and shows us how to incorporate

newly acquired things in with things we already have.

She has also posted wonderful projects that involve chalk

paint. We must have the same taste 'cause we have done

a couple of chalk paint projects that look almost identical!

My pieces are in my master bedroom; Martina's are in her 

daughter's bedroom.  Now we are both ready to paint another

piece of furniture to go in these rooms...wonder if we will 

pick the same color again?  

Thanks for stopping by Miss Kopy Kat blog on the tour!

Please go see Lori's and Martina's blogs too!

I'm sharing this post over at

Between Naps On the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday

Boogieboard Cottage's Masterpiece Monday

A Stroll Thru Life's Inspire Me Tuesday

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday 

Bloom Design's Link Party

Ivy and Elephant's What's Up Wednesday