Bench painting: for real this time

I'm getting rather slow with these posts recently. I've honestly just been really busy with work, friends, husband, planning trips, etc. But I have made progress with the project. Of course, I first had to make a correction to the base part of the bench. What was wrong with it, you might ask? Well, I wasn't wild about the color. I liked the blue, but it was a bit too loud and teal for me. So, I repainted it. I sometimes feel like painting is the task I do the most around our house. I went and visited a local store to acquire a new paint color. It wasn't Home Depot, Sherwin Williams, or Benjamin Moore. I decided to try Annie Sloan paints. They are called chalk paints because they go on rather chalky, but you finish with a soft wax or clear coat and they do pretty well for covering furniture. I first heard about the paints from Centsational Girl and had been looking for an excuse to give them a try. 

I went with Aubusson Blue for the paint color.

As you might remember, here is the bench from the first round of painting. 

And here she is after the first coat of chalk paint. The color was just a little more toned down and seemed to blend a little better with the rest of the room. The great thing about the chalk paint was that I didn't have to sand the piece down again. Chalk paint can be used right over glossy surfaces without a problem. So, that was kind of awesome. 

The key with the chalk paint is that you have to use something to seal it afterwards. I used the Annie Sloan soft wax as a first coat. I actually found it a little hard to work with, so I switched over to the water-based poly that I picked up by General Finishes. It is still a little on the stinky side (even though it's water based), but it isn't nearly as annoying to clean up as oil-based polys. For the record, I though the soft wax by Annie Sloan was also pretty stinky, so maybe there isn't a way to avoid it. 

I'm pretty happy with the new color. It's much less intense and seems to work better in the room.

I have been working on the top portion quite a bit, and I almost have all the wood working pieces completed. But I will capture that in a separate post. I still need to make a run to Home Depot to pick up a few more materials before I can finish.