How to Prevent Chalk Paint Cracking

Chalk paint cracking is one of the problems if you use chalk paint. You can fix them, or you may even want to create crack effect to create aging effect. It’s your choice.

Crack in the furniture, especially wood is usual if you have old furniture. Before painting you must prevent further chalk paint cracking. You can use wood glue like Gorilla Glue to fill the cracks and coat them with wood filler. After dry, you can sand the furniture before apply the chalk paint. You need to clean the surface also. The crack can also happen after second layer of coating. The paint will peel off and crack.

To avoid the cracking in chalk paint you can rub the furniture with abrasive pad like Scotch Brite and Tri Sodium Phosphate Cleaner. After that, you can wipe use soft cloth and Denatured Alcohol to remove any cleaner residue. You can sand the furniture use 150 grit sandpaper and directly clean with pad and TSP before painting. If the furniture still feel sticky, you can coat with Shellac on the sticky areas only or even entire surface.

Other Chalk Paint Problems

Besides chalk paint cracking, after first coating dry; you can also see stains. For this problem you can use shellac too or water or oil based lacquer depend on the stain type. After dry, you can apply the second coating of paint before waxing. Another problem may also occur after second coating after waxing. After the first coat of wax, your furniture suddenly looks streaky or shows some wood under. It usually happens in the light colors like Old White or Country Grey.

If that happen, don’t be panic to soon. You must let the wax dry first to see if it can back to normal. If not, just apply paint in the areas that imperfect then wax again. It will make the wax uneven, but you can dry it and apply the second coating. Other chalk paint problem is you may apply too much wax. You can fix that by rubbing it with a synthetic green pot scrubber. If the wax is too much wax, you can use 280 to 350 grit sandpaper gently without peel the paint.

After the wax look good, smooth with wax brush and polish it. Another problem in chalk paint is after clear wax, you may want to apply dark wax, but it is uneven and blotchy. You can use green pot scrubber again and sandpaper too. But, you may need to repaint your furniture. Next, because the chalk paint usually dry fast, and even faster in summer; when the second coating make the first coat to peel off, you must pause the work and give another two hours rest before start to coat again.

Creating Chalk Paint Cracking

Some people want to avoid chalk paint cracking, but others want to create cracking effect for more aging look. To do this, you can apply thick layer of the paint that is hard to dry; and then dry it with a hair dryer, so the paint will immediately dry and crack. After that, you can apply the clear wax first before applying dark soft wax. Prevent the crack or create the crack is all up to you.