Yes, the rumors are true! General Finishes is coming out with a chalk style paint!
Most of you know my feelings on chalk paint. I have tested dozens and dozens of primers, paints, and sealers and it just isn’t my cup of tea…or diet coke 😉 Anyway, General Finishes contacted me back in June and asked what I would want to see in a chalk paint and my first thought was “I wouldn’t like to see one”. LOL. Real helpful. But it was true. I use General Finishes Acrylic Paints & Glazes for the following reasons:
1) They have a long history of providing the highest quality and most durable products for professional wood workers. Their products are TOP NOTCH.
2) Their paint is self leveling (no brush strokes) and dries quickly.
3) Their paint is crazy crazy durable. It holds up better in all my testing than if I put any run of the mill sealer on top of it.
So, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea. Plus, I already have to explain that their milk paint really isn’t milk paint. Here is the truth about paint: the chalkier it is, the better coverage it has…. the lesser of a quality product. In fact, General Finishes said this much in their survey when figuring out what people looked for in a chalk style paint.
I haven’t been able to try it yet. I am certain it will be the best chalk style paint they can possibly make but I would always push someone to buy their acrylic paint for durability so I wondered for most of the summer if I would even carry the paint. After all I am not a paint store and I only want to carry what I use. In some cases, like sealer, I provide General Finishes sealer even though I use Modern Masters because it is REALLY good but a different price point and easier to use.
So the chalk style paint dilemma continued….And then I thought, what if someone has their heart set on one of their colors? And like I have always said, if the piece won’t be heavily used or it is going on the wall OR if it is sealed and prepped correctly, it really should be completely fine.
I kind of teach DIY for a living so I should provide the service of teaching people how to correctly use it so it can be just as durable.
Then IKEA just opened in St. Louis. Ikea has melamine furniture. Light bulb went off. You see, Melamine was created by the devil. Literally. I am fairly certain that chalk type paints will paint over melamine and I am anxiously awaiting my General Finishes delivery to test it out. Because I am here to tell you, nothing else does. We do encounter it from time to time in a kitchen but to do it right is a struggle. I think the strong mineral base of the chalk style will stick better to that particular surface if it is strongly prepped and then if it is sealed with resin it should be golden. This is all still in my engineering brain of course.
So why am I going to sell CHALK Style Paint?
1) Because I don’t want to explain every day why I don’t have it since I currently carry more General Finishes products than anyone in the area. #keepingitreal
2) Because I have always said there is a time and place for chalk style paint and if your heart is set on a color in their chalk style line and it won’t be heavily used, why not?
3) I can show you how to seal chalk style paints to give you a better finish than you ever knew was possible and really my main gripe with chalk style paints is the wax finish on a porous paint. It absorbs grease and can stain and is not water resistant so if you eliminate that issue than you will be much better off!
Chalk Style Paint
So I present to you the CHALK STYLE Paint from General Finishes. I am actually really excited to try it and compare it to other similar types of paint to use. I will let you guys know what I think right away! Are you excited about this release? Approaching with caution? I think it will be great for IKEA furniture and melamine which is what has me excited about it!
