How To Chalk Paint Your Dog

I actually wrote this two years ago, and decided to post it here today. It’s a funny little story of how I chalk painted my cabinets and accidentally chalk painted Trixie as well… enjoy!!

It all started when I decided to paint my bathroom cabinets...

A few weeks ago, I looked at my bathroom cabinets as if I were seeing them for the first time. They were stained (from me dripping hair color all over them) and a little beat up looking (the result of Trixie during a particularly bad gnawing phase). Deciding that painting was the cheaper option as opposed to replacing them, I set about doing research on the topic and concluded that chalk paint was the way to go. There's little to no sanding involved and it looked fairly easy. I now use the word "looked" fairly loosely...

So yesterday I embarked on what will forever in my memory be labeled as the "Day I Fought the Chalk Paint and the Chalk Paint Won." When I got up yesterday morning, I determined I'd procrastinated enough, and I opened my paint can with a sense of purpose, ready to have my cabinets look like an ad for Better Homes and Gardens. Needless to say, what with my life being what it is, it did not go as planned...for starters, that doggone chalk paint is THICK! It was like brushing biscuit dough onto the cabinet. So I stirred it some more. Still thick. I concluded this must be the consistency of the paint itself and proceeded to spread it on the cabinets and hope for the best. Because by this time, I was committed...I had the doors off and had started spreading it on. Looking back, I should have tried this technique on something smaller rather than starting on such a large project, but it looked simple enough on the internet, didn't it? 

After a couple of hours of fighting that paint and waiting a while between coats (yes, FOUR coats, ladies and gentlemen), I was ready to put on the wax. 

The wax...let me just state right here that waxing that paint is nowhere near as easy as it looks...it sticks like glue to the chalk paint and doesn't go on as smoothly as it does for Chip and Joanna Gaines...just saying...Finally get that finished and have to end up going back and sanding a couple of areas (something I was trying to avoid) where the wax just did not adhere. Fun time for all, right there now...

Then, came the highlight is my day...I had taken the cabinet doors down to the garage to finish painting because my bathroom was simply too small for both me and four doors. I kept stepping on them...By this time, I'm covered head to toes ( literally had to wash my feet) in chalk paint. I'm tired, grouchy and hungry....that is the only excuse for the making of my next decision...I decide to take the OPENED paint can DOWNSTAIRS to finish up...you can guess how this ends...yep, spilled that sucker all over the kitchen floor. I spent the next 15 or 20 minutes wiping chalk paint from every surface within a five foot radius of me and the can. I was washing my brush at the sink, and looked behind me and there was Trixie...and you guessed it...covered in paint splatter...got admit, I did not handle that well...I may or may not have used a few choice words.  

After wiping her off the best I could with baby wipes, I determine I would have to bathe her. Ok, you gotta understand...this is something both she and I deplore. To say  she resists the procedure is putting it mildly. 

Since I have limited ways of bathing her at the house, I bundle her up and make an unplanned trip to Pet Supply Plus to wash her off. So here I am, out in public in paint-splattered overalls, a do-rag on my head and Crocs. We both look like we've been hit by a Sherwin-Williams paint truck. 

So we go through the ordeal of the bath, and thankfully, the paint comes off. I have never prayed for dog paint removal before, but there is a first time for everything.  

At the end of the day, neither Trixie nor I died, so I'd have to call it a good, albeit a challenging day.  Those cabinet doors are still in my garage, awaiting waxing. I'm gonna try to complete that today. I must say, although I will certainly never be an expert, they don't look too bad. Problem is, I have another bathroom...

Have a great day and God bless!!