Stenciling Our Shop’s Front Concrete Sidewalk Using Chalk Paint®

It was such a beautiful day and our sidewalk in front of our Macedon. NY shop, is anything but – we decided to try what we could to give it a facelift. So, we broke out the
Old White Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan and painted a section of it. Chalk Paint® is an indoor and outdoor paint- so I can use it on my kitchen cabinets and ~ I can paint my front walkway. In fact, notice in the photo below the rectangular shaped black section near the curb? As a testament of how long Chalk Paint® will last outside- that was from a container of Graphite Chalk Paint® that fell from a shipment during being unloaded and leaked – like over THREE years ago. Although you can seal the Chalk Paint® with Annie’s Lacquer that is for both inside and out- I do not plan on doing that – and quite frankly- not sure I would recommend it on concrete slabs because moisture will be coming from the bottom up – and the Lacquer on top outside on the slab- I do not believe will fair well. So, leave the Chalk Paint on a sidewalk or outside concrete slab without Lacquer because of that.

PREP THE OCNCRETE: It needs to be clean. I did not power wash prior- although that is a great idea and if you do, let the concrete have a few dry days to really dry out. I did however, broom sweep the space to remove as much of the dirt and debris that was there.

PAINT: We then shook our can of Old White Chalk Paint® and applied a nice liberal coat using our Annie Sloan LARGE Paint Brush. Keep in mind- we normally recommend thinning the Chalk Paint® with water prior.

THINNING CHALK PAINT® WITH WATER: This is most important during your initial application of Chalk Paint®. You may ask why we recommend this. Concrete or cement is porous. That is why if you spill something on it – often- you cannot remove all of the stain since it has been absorbed into the concrete. Chalk Paint®- when thinned with some water – will permeate the concrete and get absorbed….. this will give you a better concentrated color and stretch your paint some. With a second coat – thinning is beneficial for ease of application too – but perhaps use less water.

WHAT TOOL TO USE FOR APPLYING CHALK PAINT®? The answer depends on what you are doing. If trying to cover a large surface area…I would use a foam roller. If doing these super large stencils- then I would recommend Annie Sloan’s Oval Brush. This brush is perfect for a big project like this because we wanted to cover quite a bit of surface area and it holds paint really well. Because of the architecture of the top of the bristles, it gets into the nooks and crannies of the concrete really well. I sort of cheated- I literally poured paint out on the concrete and then, spread it around. I made sure to paint within the lines…LOL I wanted to look crisp on the edges.

Painting is therapeutic and a lot of fun- so Hannah joined in on this. This project took about 40 minutes to do total and we used about 1 container of paint. The concrete is quite porous and did drink up the paint.

The crazy thing, was the following day we were hit substantial rain. The amount of rain we received was noted as 10 inches per hour by the newschannel and it rained for a solid 30 minutes. Somewhat unusual to have that much rain in such a short time in NY. Good news was- the rain did not hurt our Old White Chalk Paint® at all.

We had been waiting for a good time when we could add some additional color to the walk- so Hannah grabbed a large stencil we had by Cutting Edge Stencils. So far, we have decided to use Antibes Green, Florence and Aubusson Blue.

Using a little painter’s tape to hold the stencil in place- we applied the paint using a roller, a paint brush by Annie and also a flat head round brush (all are shown in photo above.) Personally, on the concrete – I liked the flat head round brush, but if we were painting on linoleum or smooth tile…I think I would have love the Annie Sloan 2″ Sponge Roller.

Placement for the stencil is something you should think about prior to starting- and since we are using multiple colors, think about where you want colors located.


BUY PRODUCT FROM …..THE PURPLE PAINTED LADY®:

Trish always shares, “first- if you have a local stockist- go visit them and build a relationship with them.  Go to them with your questions and project issues.”  BUT- if you do not have a local stockist- we invite you to try our customer service!As for buying any of the products we mentioned earlier in this post- I hope that you select The Purple Painted Lady® to be your one stop resource!  We have two locations in western NY.  Check out our Information tab and come and meet us!  Otherwise- if you are not located near me- the following information may apply to you.   This information is directed to those who do NOT have a local stockist.  Because if you do – go and meet them, shop from them and build a relationship with them. The guidance, information and knowledge they share with you – will be invaluable.  Get inspired by their shop that they lovingly curated – just for you!   Enjoy that one on one experience!   But for those who are in a location where there is no one selling paint products- and you must buy on-line- consider us.  With that said, visit www.anniesloan.com to find a stockist near you. We are here to help you, our customers!  We want you to be successful!   SOME OF THE REASONS WE THINK THE PURPLE PAINTED LADY® CUSTOMER SERVICE IS THE BEST: *  We love our customers and it shows!*  Ordering online?  If you order before 3 pm EASTERN TIME any day Monday thru Friday – we will ship out your package that SAME day.   We ship orders out every since week day all over the US.  (THIS IS DIFFERENT than SAME DAY DELIVERY. We do not offer that)*  We offer low flat rate UPS shipping cost so if you are one town away or 10 states away- the shipping cost is the same.*  We have awesome follow up customer service, too!*  We sell Chalk Paint® for $34.95 SHOP ON LINE HERE  : )  And I will be here to help you as you progress through your future project!  And if I do say so myself- we offer the BEST customer service that you will ever experience!  Lastly- if I was helpful to you- ….please consider leaving a positive review on my Facebook business page sharing your positive experience or thoughts about The Purple Painted Lady®.  Here is a link to my Facebook page=> http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Purple-Painted-Lady/291882785710    This really helps me!  (wink, wink!)
XOTrish

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