We have been renovating bedroom #2. It’s a lovely room with a bay window and a nice view. The look that we are going for is pretty, keeping the old molding and trim, but neutral. This house – built in around 1890, is just a bit rough and hopefully just some freshening and repairs.

I will post about the rest of this bedroom renovation tomorrow, but two small projects needed to be finished up. My daughter left behind an old vanity and dresser. They both took up a lot of “visual real estate” being dark and heavy. I painted them both in Rustoleum Ultra Matte Chalked Paint in Linen White. I brushed the paint on both pieces. The paint when on easily and dried quickly with a nice smooth textured finish, but it did need 3 coats! You can distress the paint if you like and apply an accent, but I was happy with the solid white matte finish.

After the pieces were finished I applied a protective top coat also from Rustoleum. It’s not totally necessary, but it creates a smooth finish, and keeps the handprints from sticking to the white paint – without making the surface glossy.

After I finished the pieces, I found out that it’s possible to make your own chalk paint. This would have saved my $29, and been kind of fun, but that’s how it goes. To make your own chalked paint mix – leftover white paint with either Plaster of Paris, Baking soda or Unsanded White Grout. I have all three of those, and I always have bits of leftover paint. The most popular method uses Plaster of Paris. (1 cup white latex paint mixed with 1.5 tbsp water and 2.5 tbsp plaster of paris – mixed thoroughly). This mixture spreads on quickly, and dries very quickly.

My one liter can of Rustoleum Chalked paint lasted for both pieces, so if I was doing this project again and I didn’t have so much leftover paint around, maybe it would be easier to just buy it!

The vanity was also too low to sit at. I experimented with some table leg extensions and some bed risers – but they just looked plain silly. I added some casters for a little bit of a height change.

I liked the old knobs and I tried to polish them, hoping they were brass, but no luck. I used another painting product.

It is a copper patina kit, from Modern Masters, that I bought at Home Depot. https://www.modernmasters.com/landing/homeowners/brands/me They carried 3 different kits for producing a metal/patina finish – for a green, blue or rust patina finish.

The kits include a primer, copper paint, and then an aging liquid, that is sprayed over the copper (I brushed mine on), which gives the blue patina look.

Years ago I had used this product on the handles of a buffet that we had restored which is in our kitchen. We had initially tried to polish the finish of the old handles, and all of the finish peeled off – oops. So we used the patina kit and now we have old copper handles, that weren’t really copper before – maybe brass!

The faux finish on these old handles has lasted for at least 10 years, so I knew that the finish would work on my vanity knobs too.

The instructions are easy to follow, just put down some newspaper to catch the drips, and you may want to wear gloves. I brushed on the primer with a small craft brush, and let dry for a half an hour.

After about a half an hour the primer was dry, and I applied the copper paint. I let the copper paint dry for another half hour.

The next step was to apply a second coat of copper paint, and then spray on the aging liquid with the supplied sprayer. I used a little paint brush instead.

The patina gradually appeared on the knobs. I scraped off a few drips (that I shouldn’t have left on). I put the knobs back on the vanity – and my husband asked if I needed some metal polish to get the patina off. He didn’t understand that the patina was the point!

I love the copper look and I will probably use it again somewhere else! I still need a slightly shorter chair.