Free the Paint

Hi friends! If you are here to learn about painting tile with chalk paint I just repainted my entryway tile and have a post with all the how to's and tips here.

Back in December I finally painted my entryway. I used Annie Sloan chalk paint on the floor (crazy right?!), and free paint on the walls. Actually, this little entryway has taken up more than it's fair share of space on the blog as I keep trying to get it just right. But since I posted plans, I figure I should share what I did-especially since I learned an awesome paint secret which I will now share with you...how to lay your hands on some FREE paint!

Yes friends, FREE. My most favorite price in the whole world.

My brother told me about this trick. It is going to the dump and taking paint that people have dropped off to be recycled. 

Here's my brother Paul introducing me to the glories of dump  paint.

At our facility there was a whole room full of partially used gallons and quarts of paint that people had dropped off. I went in knowing that I wanted to paint the entryway a darkish blue/grey color, and that I would need about two gallons of paint to do it. I was also on the look out for white trim paint.

Here is the only real "rule" you need to remember: **When you mix paints, use matching finishes** For me that meant choosing two nearly full gallons of white-ish flat interior latex and then several quarts of blue, black, and grey flat interior latex. See what I did there? All flat interior latex. No mixing oil with latex or flat with gloss. For more painting tips check out my "Painting guide for the lazy and non-critical."

I took a whole box, hey, it's free!

I also took several quarts of white semi-gloss trim paint. They were all different brands and slightly different shades of white-no worries as long as the finishes match. At home I mixed the two gallons of white together in a big 5 gallon bucket and then started mixing in the quarts of color. I ended up using a whole quart of black to get the color as dark as I wanted.

Once I had a color that I was happy with it was a just a matter of painting as usual. But for FREE!

As you can see,I have not yet wall papered the stair risers-but I still plan to (when I win the lottery). *I finally did the wallpaper, you can see it here.

On a side note, I have not loved the orange entryway tile since we moved in so I decided to paint that too. Sometimes I paint unusual things on the principle that I can't hate it any worse than I already do so why not?

I used TSP cleaner to clean the tile really well first. Then I used two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and one coat of ASCP Floor Lacquer. You can see how it looks in the pictures. I'm super happy and it has held up perfectly! Yay. No more orange floor. 

Orange sweater yes, orange floor no. I'm a HUGE fan of ASCP, if you want to see more chalk paint project you can check these:

Painting Upholstery with Chalk Paint

Mid-Century Modern Buffet Painted with Paris Grey

Kitchen Cabinet Face-Lift with ASCP

I'm linking up at

Viral Upcycle

How I Bit Off More Than I Can Chew and Blog About

My sweet Aunt Colleen has messaged me a couple of times to let me know that "Cranky Pants" is not such an attractive title to be lingering as my most recent post. I didn't mean to take a blogging break; life just got so busy I couldn't keep up with it an blog at the same time. Which is a silly thing to say since everyone's life is crazy busy. Still, I can only do so much.

So. Why am I so busy you ask. Well first let us all remember that I have limited capabilities and require lots of down time to read, snuggle children, and watch television. Then there was Christmas, and some major yard renovations, and Katie deciding to drop out of high school (I know, I know...that will need it's own fun and exciting post-plus now she is going to be an au pair in France)and Ellie going through extensive testing for learning disabilities, and Maddie getting engaged.

YES YOU DID HEAR ME RIGHT! And NO, I am NOT old enough to have a daughter getting married. Obviously. But apparently it is happening anyway. I know, you have questions.

Yes, we like him.

August.

They will both continue at BYU.

In the Oakland LDS temple.

Physics. He is majoring in Physics. Like with math and science. But we still like him.

He served an LDS mission in Florida.

Kenny.

And that friends is why I haven't been blogging. Wedding has taken over my brain. I fondly call it "wedding brain."

Here are photos of the darling couple.

This was when we first met Kenny, last November.

And when we visited after Christmas.

So there you have it. My fine excuses for not blogging...also including our Easter party, the entryway paint job, and starting a major new eating plan.

But I miss it so I'ma gonna get back at it. Just imagine all the wedding goodness to come :)