This week’s feature comes from A Beautiful Mess. A Beautiful Mess is a is a lifestyle company focused on creating happiness through a homemade lifestyle, founded by sisters Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman. This week’s blog is on Mandi Johnson and how she transformed her kitchen! The results are just stunning.

Mandi was so excited to start sharing posts about her kitchen renovation. She wrote she was so eager to start transforming her kitchen with Chalk Paint® 3 years later. She said it was a super crazy project to do but she cannot wait to make her kitchen beautiful again. Mandi’s home was built in 1988 and came with lots of dated brass fixtures and oodles of oak.

“I have the unique perspective to be able to share two different methods of painting kitchen cabinets, since the last time I painted our kitchen cabinets, we used latex paint and a traditional method of sanding, priming, wet sanding, priming, and painting (all using a spray gun). It was A LOT of work! But this time around I wanted to try out a different method, mostly out of wanting less work!” – Mandi

Mandi decided to pick Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® for her kitchen cabinets. She has used different paints in the past but for a change, Mandi wanted to switch it up and go a different route.

This is how her stove wall used to look before rearranging the cabinets to move the stove here, giving more space to the dining area of the kitchen. Mandi got rid of the old countertops. Her new countertops are Corian solid surface in Arctic White, and we made the countertop of our kitchen island bigger so we can eat here too. Mandi outfitted it with the same countertop she had used in her last kitchen renovation.

In the past Mandi has used Chalkboard paint. Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® is much more different than chalkboard paint. Chalk Paint is all water-based paint. It is flat paint that will stick to all surfaces without priming or sanding. It has a matte finish and needs to be sealed with wax. Mandi used Annie Sloan’s Pure White Chalk Paint, and it really made her kitchen POP.

This is what Mandi’s kitchen looked like when she first moved into her house.

Mandi pulled everything out. She said she had rearranged all of the cabinetry digitally on AutoCAD first to make sure she could get the footprint she wanted without physically rearranging them in place. There was one spot they had to glue in wood spacers because she didn’t have a cabinet wide enough for space and didn’t want to go through the trouble of fashioning a new cabinet to fill the gap!

Next, Mandi filled the holes where the dresser pulls and door knobs used to be. When she filled the holes she used Plastic Wood brand wood filler, which dries within 15 minutes, so you have to work at a fast pace.

The most important step of painting your cabinets is cleaning them very well. You will need to scrub hard and get all the dirt off so it doesn’t stain your paint.

” I thought I had cleaned my cabinets very well, but after painting, I noticed a few grease dots that were showing through the paint. I had to cover those areas with more than 10 coats of paint for the grease spots to stop finally showing through! Even primer wasn’t working to cover up the grease. So, please take it from me—make sure your cabinets are super clean before painting.” – Mandi

It’s Chalk Paint® Time!! 

Mandi was surprised how thick the paint went on. It also dried very quickly, which she thought was impressive. Mandi shares that she was able to paint coat after coat and eventually it only took 3 coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® in Pure White.

**Finished Product**

What DIY projects have you been working on lately? We are dying to see what you have come up with! Don’t forget to tag us in your designs on Instagram using #SPPaintPro for a chance to win new DIY products each month and be featured on our social media + blog.

Send us your Before + After DIY projects at stylishpatinashop.com

And in the meantime, head over to our blog page and check out some of our transformations! Then grab your supplies in-store or on stylishpatinashop.com

Keep watch on our blog to stay updated with our featured paint lines and which paint products are perfect for you!

Come see us at the shop in Falls Church!!

410 S Maple Ave #114

Falls Church, VA, 22046

703.663.8428