More chalk painting

I have been experimenting further with chalk paint, and while I am still learning, I believe that I have found a technology that I am going to fully embrace in my future miniature-making. Here are some more examples of upcycling furniture that is generally of good quality, but not perfectly finished. Once again, you can paint it with ordinary paint, but you need to remove polish either chemically or by fierce sanding. Chalk paint covers any surface smoothly.

To start with, I repainted the dressing table I showed a few weeks ago. I was quite happy with it then, but my demands on myself have risen. So I used Versailles and waxed first with clear and then with dark wax.

I think this is an improvement.

I got this sideboard at the same car boot sale, just before I left Cambridge.

It is a nice piece, but unnaturally shiny as most similar miniatures, so I repainted it with the paint called Coco. Maybe the difference is not all that striking in pictures, but believe me, it is in reality.

Meanwhile, I raided my son's basement where he had put all dollhouse stuff that my granddaughters didn't want any more. They are too old to play with dollhouses, but too young to engage with them seriously, and if and when they show interest, we will negotiate.

Most of these items are 1:18 scale (Lundby) that I don't normally work with, but this is an excellent opportunity to experiment with paint. Some of these I gave to one of the girls a few years ago when she was visiting and thought she might want. Among them were two cupboards that came with my Tudor house (don't ask me why). I never did anything with these pieces, precisely because they didn't fit into any of my projects, neither in scale nor in style.

Otherwise, it is a nice piece. I used Duck Egg Blue and again clear and dark wax. I used paper clips for knobs. 

 

I put it in a house - the only one I have at the moment - although it is totally wrong style, but it still gives a sense of what it will look like in an appropriate surrounding. 

The second one is similar. I added the tile back all those many years ago, but I never used it in any project except my antique shop where I would put all kinds of things that didn't fit with anything else.

I used the same paint, and I took a picture halfway, just to show the transformation. 

Final look:

Now you may ask, why do I use the same paint for these items? There are several explanations, the simple being that I only have a few tester jars, and because the paint is expensive I want to be absolutely sure that I like it, before I invest in a broader selection. Secondly, I am just playing, and these pieces are not going into any specific project, at least not at the moment, and if they do at some point, they are probably not going into the same project, so it won't matter. And of course I can always paint it over.

In summary, I can confirm that chalk paint is a revolution in miniature upcycling and possibly in miniature-making as well, which I will test as soon as possible. Watch this space.