How To Make Homemade Chalk Paint With Plaster Of Paris

What do you do when you have a certain shade of chalk paint in mind but are not able to find that color hue in the shop? Exactly! You mix that color of your dreams yourself and make your very unique homemade chalk paint with it.

Turns out mixing your homemade chalk paint is super easy! And I’ll share with you a recipe that will guarantee full coverage with one coat.

Curious what I needed that special shade of paint for? Click here. And see what cute little home decor I made with the left-overs.

It took me quite a while to get started with this project. Do you want to know why? Because I had absolutely zero experience even using store-bought chalk paint and was scared I would totally mess up and would have to sand the cabinet down aaaaaaaall over again. Did I mention that I don’t enjoy sanding at all, lol?

And then came the Craft Room Challenge: I really needed to create more room for storage and couldn’t procrastinate on that project anymore.

So I got right to work and started by getting all the supplies necessary.

Supplies for Homemade Chalk Paint

• Paint (I used several colors stained varnish 2in1 from swingcolor to mix my very own blue/grey hue)
• Plaster of Paris (building and electrician plaster works, too. Or maybe it’s the same. Who knows 😉 )
• Water
• Scale (a simple kitchen scale will do, I bet you have one at home)
• Jar for leftovers (I simply recycled an old pickles jar)
• Whisk (check thrift stores or yard sales to buy one solely for your craft projects)
• Stirrer (I used a wood scrap I found in the attic)
• Screwdriver (to open cans of paint)
• paper towel (to clean up any mishaps)
• Cover sheet or a piece of cardboard to protect your workspace

I found this baby whisk at a yard sale and dedicated it to be one of my crafty tools. You don’t want to use it with food after you dipped it into the paint. Your health is super important! A screwdriver always helps me open up paint cans.

How To Make Homemade Chalk Paint

Learn how to make DIY chalk paint that will provide full coverage with only one coat! I was so excited when I realised that my recipe is actually that good, I even performed a little happy dance, lol.

1 – Homemade Chalk Paint Recipe

• 10 Gramms Plaster of Paris
• 10 Gramms Water
• 30 Gramms Stained Varnish

Multiply the numbers above (I tripled everything) if you need more chalk paint for your project.

And, now keep on reading for simple step-by-step instructions.

2 – Stained Varnish As Base

I had a very special shade of blue/grey in mind that I couldn’t find in the shop. So I mixed my personal colour hue from silver-grey, white and Enzian blue. I used the 2in1 version that already includes the primer.

Alternatively you can use stained varnish in a pre-mixed shade from the shop.

Stir well so you will have the same colour shade throughout your entire project.

3 – Measure Plaster Of Paris

Same with cookie dough: First measure the dry ingredients and then add the liquids.

4 – Add Water

You’ll use the same amount of water as you used plaster of paris.

The instructions on the back of the package might state otherwise. As you don’t want to use the plaster for the originally intended modelling purpose, you don’t need to follow those instructions.

5 – Stir Thoroughly

This DIY project contains a lot of stirring, lol. But you don’t want your homemade chalk paint to be lumpy.

6 – Add Stained Varnish

Once you’re happy with the texture of your plaster mix, add three times the amount of your stained varnish.

7 – And Stir Again

When you have an even mixture, you are ready to go paint your project (scroll way down to see my paint projects). Whether it be a piece of furniture, a wall, or whatnot.

8 – Storage Of Homemade Chalk Paint

The paint stores well and will not only be good for the primary project, but for future projects, too. Simply use recycled pickles or jam jars and add a label.

Make sure to label them correctly, though. See that I wrote acrylic paint instead of stained varnish *insert eye roll here* – I’ll fix that in a minute.

Have you ever used chalk paint before? What are your experiences?

Maybe you’ve even made chalk paint yourself? I’d love it, if you were to share your recipe with me in the comments.

Love,

PS: Don’t forget to PIN this to Pinterest.

Projects To Use Homemade Chalk Paint

I needed extra storage during my Craft Room Makeover and ended up adding this beautiful Anthropologie inspired cabinet to it.

In this post, you will learn how to paint and stencil any closet this way. You can grab my detailed ‘everything you need to know about stenciling’ guide as a thank you for subscribing to my newsletter.

With some of the left-overs I DIY-ed these pretty little upcycled glass bottle vases.

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