Who else is excited about this warm weather?? I’m betting you’re all tackling outdoor projects, just like me! We have little mama’s Christening in just a couple weeks so there are a few projects I’m working on that I thought you’d like to hear about.

We get asked all the time about painting pieces that are going outdoors. Here are the rules…

Paint away like you normally would with Chalk Paint®, clean first, then paint.

But, no need to seal with wax, as wax is water repellent & not water proof.

It’s that easy!

What I love about using Chalk Paint® outside is that it wears & patinas with age, but it doesn’t flake & chip away like latex paint normally does (unless there is underlying latex paint, which I talk about below). Let me show you a couple things I’ve done in the past.

These are $7.97 plastic urns from Home Depot. Here’s the story…I originally spray painted them black (long before I knew about Chalk Paint®). They looked good for 1 season. After the winter thaw, they were peeling like crazy. Before I sent them to the compost pile, I figured I may as well give Chalk Paint a try. This was many moons ago, probably about 4-5 years. I scraped off the chipping spray paint, and then layered, French Linen, Graphite & Old White in a dry brush application. I talk about how to achieve this technique HERE on our YouTube Channel.

After 4 or 5 years, they’re still looking pretty darn good. The only areas that have “chipped” away, is where the original black spray paint was still on the urn. So basically, the Chalk Paint® that was put on top of the black spray paint flaked away when the spray paint did. Make sense? Chalk Paint is magic, but it can’t make bad paint re-stick ; )

Here’s a bench I did that same year. When I got this bench it was chipping like crazy. It had layers & layers of black & white latex paint. I wish I had photos! I took a wire brush & I gouged as much of the old paint away without doing too much work ; )

I then painted a couple coats of Emperor’s Silk & voila, brand new bench. This sat outside on my brick patio for a couple years, and then I moved it to the front porch. So again, it’s been either 4 or 5 years. The only places where this bad boy has chipped, again is where the original latex paint has lifted from the surface, taking the Chalk Paint® with it. So here it was yesterday afternoon after I again took a wire brush to it before giving it a fresh coat of paint. I should have taken a before I took a wire brush to it pic…there was much less of the black paint on the seat.

Here’s a close up of one of the areas where I scraped the wire brush over the chipped spots. You can see the gouges in the paint, but the Chalk Paint® held on strong!

I’m giving it a fresh coat of paint this year in a new color. I’m going with Aubusson Blue. A nice pop of color against my sage-y green shingles.

So I timed myself last night…it took me all of a relaxing 32 minutes to paint this entire bench. I laid the paint on kind of thick, so I could get full coverage in one coat. If I’m going for a smooth finish, I wouldn’t normally lay it on so thick. However, since this bench is already very textured and I’m not looking for it to be perfect, a thicker finish is just fine. And when you leave it with that matte finish (no wax necessary for outdoors!) it really hides a lot of the imperfections.

I used my Large Annie Sloan Paint Brush. It makes doing large surfaces SUPER FAST & EASY! I used a 2″ chip brush for some of the spindles & corners.

It dried in about an hour, even with the thick paint. So, an hour and 32 minutes for a nice porch refresh! So simple!

I snagged these shutters from our shop. My brother-in-law & sister-in-law actually used them as wedding decor. They were blue, and they painted them with Pure White Chalk Paint®. They didn’t need them anymore, so they’re a great pop behind my bench!

I even gave my little lantern a 3 minute makeover with a little Pure White Dry Brush. So simple using a chip brush & some Chalk Paint®.

And last but not least, here’s a closeup of that very textured seat. Yes, you can still see the texture, but that’s OK, I’m not going to get crazy about something that’s outside. But it is pretty amazing that the paint covered in 1 nice coat!

So what are you going to outdoor decor are you going to refresh?? Come on by the shop and tell us about your project! We can’t wait to teach you!