Annie Sloan Chalk Paint { Duck Egg Blue Chest}

This week I finished my first Annie Sloan Chalk Paint project and I am hooked! I read a little about chalk paint on Pinterest and decided I would give it a shot.  I think when I read no sanding or prep work needed, I was already in love!  The paint was a lot of fun to work with and if you like an older distressed finish, then you may want to check it out for your next furniture facelift!  

Here is a look at the old chest of drawers that I wanted to brighten up for our new nursery.  This is a piece that Mike had in college and has been sitting in our spare bedroom.  

C'est Moi is an adorable little shop in Nashville that carries Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and supplies.  They were very helpful with getting me started and since I have several old pieces that I have been wanting to paint, I decided to go ahead and invest in the wax brush and clear wax which is used for distressing.

We will find out if Baby Harder is a boy or a girl at the end of the week, but either way I fell in love with this Duck Egg Blue color and decided to use it for this dresser! The best part about the paint is that I didn't have to sand it down first, it only took one coat, and it dried in 30 minutes.  My next step was to go over the paint with the soft wax.  The wax deepens the paint color and the bristles actually distress a little on their own.  You can see the top drawers are a little darker here. 

Most of the tutorials I watched mentioned that most of the time people use too much of the wax and that you need to do a good job of rubbing it in with a lent free cloth.  So I put my handsome husband and his muscles to work!

The last step was to distress the dresser and then apply a final coat of wax over those areas.  I used 120 grit sandpaper to rough up the edges and a few spots over the wood.  It was a lot of fun and the best part is that it isn't suppose to look perfect.  I feel like we added a little character to an otherwise old boring dresser!  Here's how it turned out. 

Before and After

Much better now!