How to add drama and sophistication to your space with black chalk painted furniture and accessories. 

I love the way a piece of black furniture grounds a room and adds a bit of drama. This can be done in farmhouse style, transitional style or most styles really. All black furniture will give you this look and if you really want a statement piece, go with something in a satin or semigloss finish. For me, I find the chalk paint easier to work with. It’s more forgiving on pieces that need a bit more love and black chalk painted furniture is easier to distress if you want that look. 

 

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Tie your rooms together by  repeating 1-2 colors throughout each space. I like to use black in every room because it is so grounding and a perfect neutral. Here are some of the ways we have done this with furniture.

I started out by painting this vintage hutch with black paint.  You an see that makeover project here. 

 

 

This round coffee table is in our living room.

 

 

I picked up this bench in our entry for $10. It was a light gray color and needed some work but it looks gorgeous in  black and really ties in with the other furniture in the great room. 

 

 

I gave our kitchen table a makeover with black chalk paint as well. It ties in with the appliances, stools and light fixtures.

 

 

Another piece of black chalk painted furniture is this old piano bench which I distressed.  It started out white and you can see the original piano bench makeover here. 

 

 

Here are some other beautiful examples of black painted furniture.

 

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This vintage dresser was in super rough shape when I got it. It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do!

Before…

 

After…

 

How to paint furniture black.

I’ve used both satin and black chalk paint on different pieces of furniture. I like chalk paint because it’s easy to work with, tends to drip less than latex paint and usually requires less prep. I am old school, though, so I always sand at least a little. 🙂

The term chalk paint refers to a decorative paint know for it’s chalky appearance. I talk about it all the time here on the blog because I use it on most of our furniture makeovers. There are a number of chalk paints you can buy, like the original Annie Sloan. 

I have to be honest, I’ve never tried Annie Sloan chalk paint. I know a lot of people who have used it and it’s supposed to be very nice but it’s also very expensive. Since Annie Sloan, there have been a ton of new ones on the market by all the major paint companies and even Magnolia Home. 

I’ve just always made my own DIY chalk paint with either plaster of Paris or with baking soda because it’s way less expensive. I really like the matte finish and you can make it in as many different colors as you want. I mixed this pretty green with a couple different colors I had left over from other projects. 

 

 

You can make your own chalk paint with plaster of Paris by mixing roughly 1 cup of paint with 1/3 cup of warm water and 1/3 cup of plaster of Paris.  I highly recommend mixing the POP with the warm water first so it dissolves first and then mix in with the paint. Mix it until it’s smooth. 

When using the baking soda, I usually “eyeball” the chalk paint mix. It’s a similar ratio to POP. I used baking soda to make the black chalk paint on this DIY textured pottery project.

You can mix it on projects like these to be as smooth or as textured as you like. 

 

 

Black accents help tie each room together. I love using black candlestick holders, books and frames. 

 

 

 

 

You can see all of our chalk paint furniture makeovers here.

Milk paint is supposed to give that matte finish but I’ve only tried it once and wasn’t a fan. I’ll try it again someday just to see if it was just that project.

Our most recent project – vintage secretary makeover:

We picked this old secretary up at a thrift store for $50. It had been there for some time and they had marked it down. I’m sure it was a beautiful piece of furniture in it’s day but it was broken along the edges of the piece that drops down for the desk and it had deep scratches along the side. Someone had also already tried to give it a more modern look by painting the inside yellow. Ugh. 

 

 

To give it a more modern look, we pulled off the scrolly decoration at the top. We had done the same thing to a hutch recently and you can see that hutch makeover here.

 

 

I used wood filler to fill in the holes on the top and anywhere there was a nick or scratch on the bottom.

 

 

Prep work –

With chalk paint, you don’t have to sand but because I’m old school, and if it’s got a shiny finish, I like to sand at least a little bit with a 220 or 320 grit sandpaper for best results. I find it helps the paint stick better and I get a smoother finish.

I gave it two coats of primer. Some people say you don’t need to prime when you use black paint but I really do think it gives you a better finish in the end.

 

 

I really wanted to strip the inside down to the wood and stain it a light color to match the small hutch in our dining room but the paint on the inside was just not cooperating. 

 

 

After scraping and sanding, it just wasn’t happening. 

 

 

I ended up painting the whole piece except for the shelves which I was able to sand and stain.

 

 

So tragic error, I forgot to take pics of the painting process but I mixed the black chalk paint, applied the first coat and let it dry overnight. With the flat surface, you can use a small roller to get a smooth finish and then use a paint brush to get the detail areas and in the corners.  You can also get a smooth finish and less brush strokes if you wet your brush just a bit. 

After a second coat…

 

 

If the piece gets daily use, the last step would be to give it a couple of coats of clear wax.

 

 

You can see all of my furniture makeovers and each blog post here.

I used a small craft paint brush to paint the diamond shaped detail on the doors. 

 

 

I may go back and give it a bit of a distressed look but wanted to live with it for a bit first. That’s another benefit of chalk paint is it’s easy to distress. Also a reason why you should use a wax top coat to seal it. 

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I love black accents and black chalk painted furniture (all black furniture). It’s a great way to give old furniture pieces a new lease of life. Mixing your own chalk paint colors is the best way to save yourself a little money, too. 

Happy DIY’ing! 

Col

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