• Home
  • About
    • About Gina
    • Disclosure & Policies
    • Advertise
  • Home Tour
    • Entry
    • Kitchen
    • Living Room
    • Dining Room
    • Command Center
    • Powder Room
    • Den
    • Office
    • Guest Room
    • Master Bedroom
    • Master Bathroom
    • Baby Girl’s Room
    • Boy’s Room
  • Organization
  • Favorite Things
  • DIY
  • Decor
  • Design Services
  • Contact

Living Solutions blog

Ideas & Inspiration

Painting a Big Girl Bed Using Chalk Paint

February 17, 2016 By Gina Jackson

Wow, it’s been a doozy of a week! The stomach bug hit our family, my hubby got his tonsils out, it was Valentine’s Day celebrations at school…Craziness! I had plans for a couple of different posts, but I haven’t gotten much accomplished this week ;)

Today I’m sharing how I FINALLY painted my daughter’s big girl bed! She turned 3 in last fall and was still in her crib {you can see her room here}. It was clearly time to transition her into a bed. She was climbing in and out of her crib on her own, so I knew it was time. That’s why I searched Craigslist and found her a cute little bed for $75, back in September. We all drove about 40 minutes each way to pick up her new bed. In September. And I went right out and bought Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. All back in September. And then this little bed sat in our garage for about 4+ months :)

I had been wanting to try Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for awhile and although I love a darling Pottery Barn Kids bed and actually had my heart set on this adorable Land of Nod bed, it wasn’t really in the budget, so I thought it was a good time to try this little project.

Annie Sloan Pure White Chalk Paint and Wax

Many, many times during this whole “little” project, I kept telling Jason that “Watch, I’ll spend all this time and money on paint, wax, brushes, etc. and we will put it all together and it will come crashing down the first time we lie down with her to read her a book and then we’ll end up buying that Pottery Barn Kids bed after all!!”

But I persevered and barely made it to the finish line with out breaking down and ordering any old bed that someone would just come and set up and we’d be done with it!

This is what her room looked like with the crib. I haven’t taken updated photos of her room with her new bed, but I will soon!

LSID Nursery*6

So here is the little Craigslist find put together before any painting went down.

Wood Bed Before Painting with Chalk Paint

Headboard Before Chalk Paint

I decided to go with Pure White and I love how the color turned out. I love all the colors in the Annie Sloan paint line, but the Pure White worked best with the rest of the room.

Annie Sloan Pure White Chalk Paint

I dusted each piece before I started doing any sanding or painting.

Prepping Headboard for Chalk Paint

The whole bed didn’t need sanding, just a few spots and I just used a sanding pad that I had on hand.

Sanding Before Chalk Paint

One Coat of Chalk Paint before Shellac

Supposedly you can just start painting with chalk paint…no priming. Well, of course the first coat I painted looked like this. And I didn’t think that it was really looking right. There was pink/red/yellow bleeding through the white. All the YouTube tutorials I watched kept saying “I used one, maybe two coats” and all I kept thinking is “I’ve painted a lot and this is supposed to be easy!!!” I was stubborn and tried another coat on one of the rails, but it didn’t work! So back to Google I went and found out that furniture from the ’30s and ’40s can do this and it doesn’t matter how many coats you paint on, you need one coat of shellac to go on either before painting or after the first coat of paint.

UGH! So I headed to Home Depot to see what they had and I found Zinsser Shellac and used a little sponge pad to apply the shellac.

Screen Shot 2016-02-17 at 9.07.57 PM

I had seen a tutorial that said that Annie Sloan herself recommended painting in kind of a cross hatch pattern and I did that on the first coat. More pink/yellow bleeding through on the headboard too.

First Coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

But using the shellac worked. It sealed all the bleeding.

2 coats of chalk paint after shellac

The bottom rail has the shellac and the top rail was pre-shellac. After that first coat and the shellac, I stuck with just painting back and forth. I think if I wanted the bed to be more distressed, the cross hatch technique would have worked fine.

Compairing One Coat vs Two Coats of Chalk Paint

Once it was all painted, I used an angled square brush to apply the wax and then with a clean soft rag went back over the wax and wiped it off. I let it completely dry about a day or two. We had some 1″x4″s cut for slats for mattress support once the bed was all painted and stuffed a mattress and a bunkie board {more of just a padded board that is used in bunk beds or lower mattresses in place of a box spring} into our SUV and came home and put it all together!

I did purchase the Audrey Quilted bedding in pink from Pottery Barn Kids and picked up some cute sheet sets at Target. On a side note, I have found that washable comforters for kids bedding are easier to manage over duvet covers. It’s just easier in my opinion to be able to throw it in the wash if you need to, and not have to take the duvet on and off.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Bed

I did a mini “reveal” for her when she got home from school a few weeks ago. She was so excited for her new bed, it was so sweet! And I think what was just as sweet was how excited her brothers were for her, too! I’ll be sure to take some more pictures of this room soon. So I guess it was worth the painting and the time :)

 

linking up with live laugh rowe // blesser house

You May also Like:

Brick Fireplaces…To Paint or Not To Paint?! Tuesday’s Tips ~ Paint Brushes Command Central Update It Has Arrived!

Leave a Comment Filed Under: DIY Projects, Uncategorized Tagged With: Before and Afters, Chalk Paint, DIY, Gina's Home, kids rooms

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hi! I'm Gina and welcome to the Living Solutions Blog! I'm a wife, a mom of 4 little kiddos and the owner of Living Solutions Interior Design. My family and I recently moved from San Diego, CA to Nebraska and this blog is where I share inspiration, design tips and ideas, projects and every day life! Thanks for stopping by!

Let’s Connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS

Join the Newsletter

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Search Living Solutions

Popular Posts

  • A "How-To" Box Pleat Valance Tutorial A “How-To” Bo...
  • Kids' Art & School Work Organization Kids’ Art & Sc...
  • Painting a Big Girl Bed Using Chalk Paint Painting a Big Girl Bed U...
  • Before & After - Master Bathroom Remodel Before & After ̵...
  • Summer Goals & Activity Ideas with Printables Summer Goals & Activ...
  • 2 Chairs: the same or different? 2 Chairs: the same or dif...
  • Household Systems ~ Household Binder & Home Project Binder Household Systems ~ House...
  • Jack & Jill Bath ~ Before and After Jack & Jill Bath ~ B...
  • Our Laundry Room Our Laundry Room
  • How to Update a Brass Fireplace How to Update a Brass Fir...

Archives

Tag Cloud

Accents Area Rugs Art Artwork Bathrooms Bedrooms Before and Afters Blog challenges Client Projects Command Central Crafty Projects Design Tips Details DIY Fabrics Fall Decor Favorite Things FIreplaces Furniture Gallery Walls Gina's Home Holiday Decorating Holidays Home Home Improvement Inspiration Kids kids rooms Kitchen remodel Kitchens Laundry Rooms Living Rooms Nursery Organization Organizing One Step at a Time Paint Paper Organization Projects Remodels Seasonal Shopping Treasures Things We Love Uncategorized Window Treatments
All content © 2025 Living Solutions blog • Design by TMC Designs, LLC.
Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 12.30.48 PM

Stay up to date on posts, professional designer tips and our newsletter.

Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.