Tinting Primer with Chalk Paint

Often times you get your hands on furniture that you aren't quite sure of its history. It's probably had years of wear and tear and who knows what has been spilled on it. I often find myself looking over a piece of furniture with concern...should I prime it? Should I just chance it and just slap some paint on? I have taken my chances many times, only to have a piece totally painted and days later notice "bleed through" coming up. There is nothing more frustrating than old grease stains making an appearance on your freshly refinished piece!

So I decided to start priming most pieces that seemed like they'd have some issues. The brand I use is Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer. I have used both the Zinsser spray-on and the Zinsser paint-on kinds. I prefer the paint-on method. That way I can get the primer exactly where I want it without worrying about "over spray". Plus, you can tint the paint-on primer.

My big problem with primer is....what if I want to distress and show another color underneath but I don't want it to be the bright white primer? Sure, I could prime it, layer another color over top, then paint with my final top color. Who wants to paint a piece of furniture that many times?!

I kept thinking there has to be an easier way — and there is! Go ahead and tint your primer with whatever color of chalk paint you want to distress down too. This is the custom mixed tinted primer I used on a recent project and it worked great!

I measured out 1 cup of primer into a clean disposable container. (Make sure you have a lid that fits, you don't want your primer drying up if you need to step away for a while.) Then start measuring out your chalk paint color tablespoon by tablespoon. You will want to stir in each addition in VERY well. Be sure to keep track of your "recipe" just in case you have to mix up more later. Be on the safe side and just mix too much the first time around. =) Save yourself a huge headache.

I ended up with about 1/4 cup of my chalk paint color to my 1 cup of primer. It went on a lot lighter than shown above and really compliments my finished color well.

I think the finished piece looks much better than it would have if I would have distressed down to the original white primer.

I like the subtle distressed look. And I really like the fact I only had to paint it twice, once with  my tinted primer and the second time with my chalk paint color. After all, the less you have to work on a piece the better it is!

 Note: We always clean all of our pieces with TSP before we do anything to them.