CeCe Caldwell’s Distressed Desk with Metallic Wax

Update!  I only use Debi’s Design Diary DIY Paint since publishing this post.  DIY Paint is 100% Natural, Clay Based, which makes it different from every other chalk paint product.  It is perfectly smooth, the colors are beautiful and cover well, even their whites.   It paints like liquid Velvet.  You won’t believe how good a paint brush and a can of paint can feel.  It is ahmazing stuff.  Check my side bar if you want to know more.

It’s themed furniture day with my DIY Furniture Girlfriends.  We are all in Distressed States in various degrees!

I am in a state of Distress.  Well not really the kind of distress you would associate with emotional distress.  Actually, my emotional state is pretty supreme these days with how much fun I am having with CeCe Caldwell’s 100% Natural paints!

The Distressed State I refer to is my desk.  I have been extremely busy with my new business launch Oui Redoux, teaching others and training retailers how to use CeCe Caldwell’s paints to beautify their home decor..well, I haven’t had much time for painting myself! 

I purchased the desk for a bargain, because well.  Look at it!  It was loved into some serious shabby condition.  Thank goodness none of this mattered to me.  It was going to be transformed into something it never thought it could become.  I started by sanding smooth the top.  I used CeCe Caldwell’s Stain in Hickory to stain the top.  Yep, you read that correctly.  NATURAL STAIN.  CeCe Caldwell’s has a line of beautiful, all natural stains + finish, built right in.  And they are so easy to use!  You can check out my desk I did with Kukui and my bookshelf turned rolling cart with Kukui.  A beautiful, very dark stain.  

I love to play chemist, or mess maker, or just crazy artist.  I am always mixing CeCe Caldwell’s colors to get the right shade I want.  I mixed Pittsburg Grey, Blue Montana Sky and Dover White to get this color.  About equal parts of the Pittsburg Grey and Blue Montana Sky and then used Dover White wash to lighten it until I achieved the shade I wanted.  

Once the paint was dry, which was fast, time to distress.  I used a damp rag in some areas.  You can distress CeCe Caldwell’s paints with a damp rag!  There is no acrylic or latex in CeCe Caldwell’s paints.  This means you can easily go back and distress it before it has fully cured and hardened.  Because CeCe Caldwell’s is made with Chalk and two kinds of clay, this paint is very different than any other you will find on the market.  It won’t chip, flake and completely bonds with whatever surface you are painting.  No priming, no sanding.  It is 100% natural, 100% made in America and the cans are 100% recyclable.  I really can never say enough about passionate I am about CeCe Caldwell’s Paints and products, but I will keep trying!  

Now for the really fun part. The 100% natural metallic wax.  CeCe Caldwell’s has a line of 100% natural metallic waxes too.  And they are amazing. You can easily apply them with your finger, or a brush, and they harden on your surface and dry completely.  I dry brushed the Bingham Copper wax on all the details and highlights of my desk.  I used a brush by ChalkPro Products.  They make the most amazing natural bristle brushes for paints and waxes.  They are American made too and you can check them out on my Side Bar!

It wasn’t enought to stop at the details with the metallic wax, I wanted to go all out in Distressed Shimmer.  I lightly brushed, then blended with a soft rag, the copper wax all over the top of my desk, where I had applied the all natural Hickory Stain.  You can’t see the wax out right, but when the light catches it, it makes the desk shimmer, and it has a slight coppery tinge to it now. 

Finishing my distressed desk with CeCe Caldwell’s 100% Natural Chalk + Clay based paints has left me feeling anything but distressed.  I can’t wait to get the desk to our office at Oui Redoux and show it off for our next workshops!  

Can’t get enough Distressed furniture?  Check out my Furniture friends and their distressed projects.  Everyone has a different look and it is so fun to see what everyone’s interpretation of distressed is.

Hope your day is not distressing, unless you are distressing some CeCe Caldwell’s Paints.