ᐅ Chalk paint – how to work with it?

@fach1werk
@Steffi33
@all creatives

I’ve been painting a black lacquered wooden desk, a brown pine lacquered shelf, and a wooden chair with chalk paint for the first time over the past two days—all surfaces are more or less lightly sanded. I also painted a lacquered shelf (IKEA) on the side. It’s not working at all. Even the second coat doesn’t cover where I start with the brush. Corners that I go over again after 10 minutes clump up and get thick. Surfaces become crumbly if I go over them again after 5 minutes. Either it doesn’t cover or the paint drips. If I didn’t hope that this is probably normal and that I need to sand everything to get a nice finish, I would have given up by now.

What am I doing wrong?
Using a short-pile roller was also a disaster: the typical texture like textured wallpaper but without coverage.

I wanted a tactile, great white desk, but what I got are clumped spots and a waste of time... for the price of the paint, I could have already bought a new desk.

No idea
I haven’t had this issue so far
I only know materials that are easy to work with and have good coverage

ypg schrieb:

everything is more or less roughened

I think this is where the problem lies. In my experience, just lightly or even heavily roughening the surface often isn’t enough; the old paint really needs to be removed. Then, do the usual: clean, dry, and free of grease and oil.

MayrCh schrieb:

I believe this is where the main issue lies. In my experience, lightly roughening the surface—whether less or more—often isn’t enough; the old paint should actually be removed. Then, follow the usual steps: clean, dry, and free of grease and oil.

This does not apply to chalk paint.
I just painted a few boards of the shelf without any pretreatment—not even degreasing. Result: the first side with the white paint behaved as described, while the other side spread easily and covered well.
The more porous the substrate, the harder it is to spread the white paint evenly. This mainly applies to white; colored paints perform better overall.

So far, I have never had any problems and have painted a lot. Maybe it depends on the paint?
Mine was from Painting the passt

Snowy36 schrieb:

So far, I haven’t had any problems and have done a lot of painting—maybe it depends on the paint? Mine was from Painting the passt

PIP, I’ve been actively following this on Facebook lately. The paint is quite expensive, but the color range is really tempting.

Overall, I can say that I experienced these issues on all sanded surfaces, especially with white paint. On the lacquered shelf (very smooth), which was only slightly roughened, it worked better than on open-pored surfaces. I didn’t prime the intermediate boards at all: the white paint applied poorly, so I used it as a primer for another coat; the green paint went on like butter.
In hindsight, here’s a comparison: the white paint is as matte as peanut butter, honey, or Nutella, while the green paint is like oil—even though both have the same viscosity.

I’m now at the sanding stage. The rough brush texture disappears, but the uneven residue remains, fittingly labeled “homemade.”