Thursday, May 31, 2012

CeCe Caldwell Chalk Paint

I'm a BAD blogger! I haven't had a chance to sit down and document the things I've been doing around the old homestead in so long! May I say, having small children and blogging do not always go together well. Regardless of who I have tugging at the hem of my skirt, I have been able to create a lot of new things to share with you. Hooray! Even better, I feel that I'm almost at a point where I can sit down for a few minutes and type away without major catastrophic interruptions! So, just know these posts will be spotty at best for the next few weeks.

So, on to my latest project.

We talked chalk paint in recent weeks. I painted my dinning room chairs in Annie Sloan's Old White Chalk Paint.

Loving the way chalk paint goes on with little to no prep, I decided to also paint my corner hutch and side table.

If you remember, chalk paint isn't cheap, the price plus shipping comes to nearly $47.00,  so I took my little time picking a color. I poured over color swatches and sweated it out for nearly four weeks. In my extensive sweating and research I came across this ridiculous commercial spot for a major competitor of Annie Sloan's magic paint.


Okay if you made it through this video, I'm proud of you. It pained me to my very core, especially when Lisa Loeb there began her little dance routine. Ugg!

Even though the video above was hard to endure, it did make me want to try CeCe Caldwell's paint. I especially enjoyed the price, it was nearly $6.00 cheaper! $6.00 whole dollars! Alright, you're still paying 40 bucks for a quart of paint, but chalk paint is the shiz and once you go chalk you'll never...er...I can't think of a word that rhymes with chalk. Oh well, you'll never want to use latex paint again, except on your walls.

There were a couple things I didn't enjoy about picking CeCe Caldwell paint. First the paint swatches they use to show you the paint color are lacking big time. That at least Annie Sloan got right. You almost feel a let down when you see the paint selection. But if you google the colors individually, you can find some nice examples of the colors used in real-time. And that's how I settled on Smoky Mountain. 


Let just get to the point and show you how my furniture pieces turned out:



Here's a close up of the painted surface:



I let some of the old paint color show through. It still makes me want to cry when I see it. That's how you know you hit nail right on the head and made a spectacular piece. It's when you catch yourself looking at it and misting up a bit. Okay, maybe I'm a bit emotional, but I'm so happy with the results.

By the way here's how much paint I had left after I finished these two projects:


That's about half a can. Not too bad if you ask me!

So how did CeCe measure up to Annie? Let's find out shall we?





Over all they are both winners, but I really felt that the CeCe paint took this round.

My next fun experiment is to try to make chalk paint! That should be fun.





16 comments:

  1. Hello there,
    I love your projects, beautiful! You did a lovely job on both and I like your colour choices. I appreciate your blog and with 4 kids of my own - I get how hard it can be to sit down and write stuff, so thank you for that too.

    I also love your comparison chart. Thank you for doing that.

    BUT...I ***LOVE*** that video - what are you talking about? It's kooky, fun and has good info in it.

    Just to come clean here, I used to distribute ASCP, soon I will be lauching my own line, "van Gogh Chalk Paint Collection" so naturally, I'm interested in all things chalk paint and furniture refinishing.

    Kathy van Gogh

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice story on the comparison. I still (so far) prefer ASCP because it is SO thick and you can thin it some if needed, especially on a 2nd coat, and it goes on much smoother. So in my eyes, because it is SO thick, you're actually get more for your money, more mileage so to speak. :) Next I'd like to try La Craie, they have a true black.

    ReplyDelete
  3. About a month ago I decided to paint some furniture I had with chalk paint. An acquaintance of mine had rave about Annie Sloan cp and since I didn't have anywhere close to me that sold it, I researched for it online. I'm pretty detailed in my research so while doing so, I found Cece Caldwell paint. So, I started reading reviews between the two paints, hearing both are great and of course people had personal preferences.
    The one thing that swayed me to Cece was that everyone said that it was zero voc's and non toxic. This was said about both the paints and the wax. This is really important to me because I am chemically sensitive!
    Again there were no retailers close to where I live in N. California so I ordered online. I got really excited and lined up several pieces to paint and wax. After my 2nd piece, I felt my fingers were tingling and with the 3rd piece, the tingling turned into burning. The only thing that I was really touching was the wax.
    So I read the can and looked up the ingredients. Carnauba wax is safe, beeswax is safe, linseed oil is not. Raw linseed oil is called flaxseed oil and is not used in furniture wax as it takes forever to dry and doesn't harden. Boiled linseed oil is what is used in furniture waxes and has added solvents / metallic dryers which are indeed toxic!
    I thought I had to share this because I may not be the only one that is chemically sensitive. In fact I think many of the people who choose chalk paint do so because they think it is completely safe. The several pieces I did were for my daughters room and now I am not so sure that the wax is safe for her to be constantly touching, although I am hoping the toxic junk evaporates.
    The pieces look great and were fun to do, but the wax is my concern. I guess you could wear gloves, though it's not the same as being bare fingered. Cece Caldwell should have a warning about linseed oil though. I haven't painted for days and I still feel the tingling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I forgot to add, your blog is the first unbiased one I have read and I like your comparisons.
      Also, I agree with you about the annoying video, lol.

      Delete
  4. The best part of this dreadfully boring read, was the video of "Lisa Loeb " clearly you could use a dash of her personality and creativity, And by dash I mean a truck load. If you were a new Cece paint color you would be Green With Envy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have been watching and reading blogs/websites and videos with information for days but just found yours. We started our 1st piece early in the only working after work at night so it's taking us longer. We are doing an old buffet in Cece's vintage white 1st coat and Portland
    rose as the top coat. I am so LOVELY IT. We are painting in the kitchen we NO ODORS. I am going to redo all my old antiques! Thanks for your posting here with helpful information.

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