Work In Progress Wednesday

The other day a blogger said she had a lot of projects going on, but wasn't getting anywhere. Oh how I understand! 

I decided to make some progress on one of my projects and then show it, even if I don't have it totally finished. Sort of trying to inspire myself, or shame myself, into getting something done.

Here's my latest project and the state I've reached with it. It's not finished by a long shot (because why leave it simple when you can complicate the hell out of it is my motto), but at least it's getting there.

This old galvanized tub was dirty inside and had a water stain on the bottom that went up 3 inches. I wanted a farmhouse-type container that I can keep current issues of magazines in, and I thought this would do.

My idea was to clean it out inside and paint it with chalk paint. I wanted to paint it a kicky blue-green, but didn't want to waste the expensive store-bought chalk paint for the first couple of layers, so decided to mix up my cheap homemade mix for the first layers.

I was so excited to get started last night, I didn't take pictures until after I cleaned it out with about 15 disposable Clorox wipes and then taped it up with painter's tape and painted the first coat.

Here it is with the second coat of paint on it...

I was just going to paint the inside, not the outside lip. After the first couple of coats on the inside, I took a little of the tape off to see how it looked.

I decided to tape it back up and do the lip too. I wanted the paint to show up more so thought the painted lip would help. Here's the point I'm at now...

To make homemade chalky paint I used leftover Behr's 'Paint and Primer' brand paint in my favorite shade of white, Behr's Swiss Coffee. I mixed up one part Plaster of Paris (from a big tub I've used for 2 years) with a little warm water to make a slush, then added three parts of the Swiss Coffee paint. I've heard Calcium Carbonate makes a better chalk paint, but I'm trying to use up the Plaster of Paris before I try that.

I'm giving it a few days for the paint to dry out, then I'll decide whether I'll stick with the white or add some layers of blue. The cost of this project was...nothing. The tub was in the garage for a few years, and the paint and Plaster of Paris were leftovers. It feels good to be "using it up" this year, and I hope you'll share your projects if you're doing the same.

Whichever color I go with, I know I will be adding some wax or poly to protect it from scratches. Need to do some research on that, but I would appreciate any suggestions you might have on the subject.

Thanks for dropping by!

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