Chalk Paint Review: Annie Sloan VS Americana Decor

This past weekend we loaded our plate with a few more construction and DIY goodies.  We are very excited that some of these 'bigger projects' are nearing completion.  

Through casual conversation, I've had a few friends mention they were surprised I had not yet jumped on the chalk paint bandwagon.  Well, I finally did, but I was wanting to make the information more valuable to our readers, therefore, I tried TWO different kinds of chalk paint, just for you!  Good big or go home. 

I had to re-vamp a little dresser that I just wasn't feeling.  Sometimes white is just to uh.. white.  I thought this dresser was the perfect opportunity to check out the latest and greatest chalk paint buzz.

Remember me?

The candidates were: Annie Sloan VS Americana Decor (from Home Depot).  This is what I found out about the two.  Mind you, this is my opinion and my opinion alone.

So, there it is.  I suppose I should explain my reasoning.  First, let us begin with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  For starters I do not live in a city where home decor boutiques are prevalent.  I have to hop in a car and drive my ass (about 90ish miles) just to pick up a super expensive quart (about $34.95) of paint that doesn't apply very well, unless you invest additional money into their even more expensive brushes.  To be honest, I would rather spend my money on anything else, but that.  

I found myself in a shop called Mama's Happy on Grand in St. Paul that carried ASCP.  It is a super cute shop that has basically dedicated themselves to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  If anything, it is a shop you should check out with your uh mom.

I looked at the color samples and decided to go with Graphite.  There was an image on Pinterest (where else?) that I kept coming back to--

I walked out of the shop spending about the amount of my car insurance payment.  In my hands I had a quart of wax, and a sample size of graphite.  The kind sales lady told me that a sample size should cover two or so dressers.  I only had one dresser to paint, so life was good.

Once I got the paint home, I read the instructions carefully.  Basically, it tells you to paint right over your gross, un-sanded, dirty dresser.  Now that I can do.  I had a hard time believing that this small sample size could cover a whole dresser, but two dressers?  It became apparent that this was one of the more disappointing lies I've been told in my life.  The paint barely covered the top and sides of the dresser.  I didn't even get to touch the drawers.  And without those "special" brushes, the dresser just looked a mess.  For weeks it sat in our basement, half naked painted.  Every time I went to the cities I told myself I was going to stop and pick up some more paint.  I could never bring myself to do it though.  That was when I remembered running across some chalk paint samples at Home Depot.

Home Depot and JoAnn Fabrics sells Americana Decor Chalk Paint.  I ended up ordering a 16 oz container in Relic-- which is very comparable to Graphite in ASCP-- for $15.98.  Bonus: I didn't have to pay for shipping since I sent it straight to my local HD.

I picked up a couple of 50 cent brushes and went to town on my dresser.  The application with Americana Decor Chalk Paint was very smooth.  I barely used any of the paint and managed to get two coats on, no problem.  The only issue I experienced with this particular paint was how easily it chipped off if I bumped it, or breathed on it.  This issue, however, was resolved after applying a clear coat of Annie Sloan Wax.  

I ordered these knobs from the Martha Stewart collection at Home Depot.  The hardware comes with two different sized bolts- neither of which worked for this dresser.  Once I pick new bolts up, I should be able to get the little 'platform' it comes with and the knob itself to meet up and create a little magic.

and just for comparison sake--

The end result?  If I were to use when I use chalk paint again, I will stick with Americana Decor.  However, if I had a money tree in my backyard, I would consider buying Annie Sloan Chalk Paint again.  I am a little shocked it took me this long to try out this paint.  I finally get what all of the buzz was about.  If you are nervous about giving it a go, start with something smaller.  You'll be happy you did.

I also wanted to leave you with a little snap shot of my art studio.  It will be a while longer until it is completely put together (new windows and trim, doors, etc.).  I seriously CANNOT wait to start creating in this little bugger.  

Wax On, Wax Off ... Er, Poly On, Sand Off?

The thing I love about weekends when you are in your "late early years," is that home improvement projects and cleaning house are the excitement of our weekends; and making it to midnight before crashing on the sofa watching Food Network?  Well, that is a feat in itself.

I don't even know...

What I do know is teenagers bother me now and top 40 music is obnoxious.  

Let's get back to the excitement, shall we?

This weekend me and Shane spent a good part of our time having a contact high from the poly fumes. This stuff ain't for the birds, folks.  Open a window, maybe.

I know I mentioned before that hopefully the next photo submitted would be a picture of a complete basement.  Well, with 90 hours of total drying time it didn't happen.  Plus, we are too eager to show off the results!  We apologize in advance for our poor iPhone quality photos.

For starters, we went with the Minwax stain in Expresso.  It look about a quart or so to do our floors.  I am a huge fan of Minwax anything because we've never had a problem with it, which is kind of a big deal for us, and an even more rare occurrence.  

After the stain was applied we ended up picking up this stuff:  

... and it's smell is lethal.  If you have kids, I would recommend an all-weekend pool party at a hotel while your house airs out.  Hooray for chlorine in your eyeballs!

We ended up doing three coats of poly.  The trick is to do one coat, wait four hours for drying time, give it a light sanding--clean up, apply the second coat, wait four hours, do a light sanding-- clean up, and finish off with a third coat, allowing the final coat of poly to cure for 74 hours before light use.  Three coats of poly or more are recommended for any floor.  Because this room won't be getting as much use as others, we spared ourselves and stuck with three.  At four coats, we would have officially hated life.

**Tip: We used large foam brushes, but held them like sponges instead of paint brushes.  There is a huge difference in the amount of time you take doing one versus the other.  Trust us.

We still have yet to install new closet doors, trim, and do some paint touch-up's.  But the floor?  We can call it good.  High fives all around!

After zero coats of poly:

After three coats of poly:

The wood looks lighter in some areas, but we assure you it is the iPhone quality photo.

It's got a nice little sheen to it without it being overly glossy.  Hopefully the NEXT photos will be the final photos, and that the update will come sooner rather then later?  Until then.

We Planked

It's Monday and I can't tell you how good it feels to sit after this past weekend.  I lost count after oh, maybe a million squats and ladder climbs.  Why?  Because we planked, baby.

As you may have read from previous posts, we have been working non-stop on our mini basement reno. The goal is to have this space serve as a guest bedroom and an art studio.  Since carpet would be a bit ridiculous for an art studio, and investing too much money on flooring would be silly, we decided to try a cheaper alternative-- plywood plank flooring.

To achieve the look of plank flooring in a basement, there are a few steps that need to be taken first: We were working with a concrete surface because we were in the basement.  These steps are different then if you were laying plank flooring on an already existing sub-floor.  Steps to create plank flooring on a flat, concrete surface include:

Step 1:  Before anything clean your concrete surface.  Scrape, sweep, and remove all debris.  Give your surface a good wipe down with a gentle cleaning solution and mop.  Repeat if necessary.

Step 2:  Lay the vapor barrier.  Make sure the edges of the paper creep up your wall slightly-- about an inch or two.  Staple the paper around the perimeter into the sheet rock with a heavy duty upholstery stapler.

Step 3: Lay the plywood sub-floor.  We purchased eight 4x8 compressed plywood sheets at 3/4" thickness from our local Home Depot.  The cost was around $7.00 a piece.  No room is perfect, so keep in mind that you will need a table or a circular saw to get the job done.

X marks the spot- Line your sheets up in the center part of the room

Step 4:  To attach the plywood through the vapor barrier and into the concrete, you'll need to use a hammer-drill.  You can either rent one for the day, or purchase one.  We found a great deal on ours at Menard's for around $50.00.  We also picked up a couple of boxes of ITW Tapcon hex head concrete anchors (the blue screws).  Purchase a length where the screw will go through your plywood and into the concrete comfortably.  We put about 10-12 screws in each sheet of 4x8 plywood.  If your plywood squeaks, screw a few more in there.

Begin here if you are starting with an already existing sub-floor

Step 5:  Laying the plywood planks--  We went through Home Depot and had them cut down eight 1/4" 4x8 sanded plywood sheets.  I believe we got about six 7.5" planks (cut the long way) in each sheet.  We did a "will call" order to avoid charges on each cut, which wouldn't really be a big deal, but who wants to work under that kind of pressure?  GET THESE DONE NOW!  Rawr!  No thanks!  Position the boards in a design that you fancy before proceeding to the next step.

Step 6:  Pick up more than enough tubes of Liquid Nails to avoid having to go back to the hardware store in the middle of your project (like we did) and return what you don't end up using.  We made the mistake of buying tubes of Liquid Nails Subfloor because it made sense.  They aren't cheap, but we thought we'd end up returning a lot of them.  Nope.  We used all of them and found out that the regular construction version (a lot cheaper) of Liquid Nails would do just fine.  Squeeze the Liquid Nails to the bottom of the board and spread with a v-notch trowel, keeping in mind that the ends in particular should be coated.  Lay the boards down and secure with a nail gun.  We used 5/8" brads in our nailer.  This will change depending on the thickness of your planks, so measure accordingly.

Step 7:  Let the boards cure for 24 hours before staining or painting.

Tip:  Apply stain wearing gloves and using a rag for an even and smooth coverage.  Make sure you are staining with the grain.

This is after one coat of Minwax in Expresso.  Shooting for two coats.

Food wood for thought: You are laying cut planks from plywood, therefore, you will have gaps between your boards.

Hopefully the next photo will be one of the basement, dare I say... completed?  Thanks for reading.