One thing I really love using on a lot of my DIY projects is Chalky paint or Clay paint, and since I always have extra paint leftover from previous projects, I decided “why not make my own Chalky paint and Clay paint using these leftovers?” It saves a little money and allows me to use up all my other paint that I may have otherwise just never used!
I’ve made my own Chalky style paint for many years before I started using Dixie Belle Paint and DIY Paint. It’s honestly so much easier to just grab one of those two brands of Chalky paint to use instead of mixing my own, but as I said, sometimes I have leftover paint that needs to be used and so I figured this was perfect! Also, sometimes I am doing a large project and it’s just easier to make a huge batch of it!
Let’s Begin – Chalky Style Paint
So what goes into creating your own Chalky paint or Clay paint? I needed very few things to make these two paints. Plaster of Paris, French White Clay Powder, and Paint Samples / leftover paint. All of these things you can find at your local hardware or craft store and I included a picture for reference!
I also used a 2 oz. portion cup to be my measurement tool. For my Chalky style paint, I filled my 2 oz. portion cup with Plaster of Paris. I began to slowly pour that into my paint but I only started with 1 oz. and then increased as needed. Remember: You can always add but you can’t take away!
I ended up using about 1.8 ounces of Plaster of Paris which got me the consistency I was looking for; semi-thick. If you end up adding too much, you can add a drop or two of water to help even it out!
A great thing about this is once you get the consistency you want, most times you will not have to prime your canvas (or whatever this is going on) because the Plaster of Paris will give the paint an amazing texture that will stick to almost anything! Also, the Plaster of Paris will have a matte finish but if you’re wanting a different finish you can add some wax to it to give it some depth.
Clay Style Paint
For this style of paint, I used French White Clay Powder in addition to my Plaster of Paris. I started out with about an ounce of Plaster of Paris and an ounce of French White Clay Powder. Now if you’re using acrylic-based paint, this will not become a clay-based paint but it will have the properties that the Plaster of Paris and the French White Clay Powder bring. Such as your paint being thick, rich, having really great coverage, and being able to stick to just about anything. If you want clay-based paint you would use water, pigment, and the claw powder / Plaster of Paris.
Now that I have it all mixed together I decided to add another ounce of French White Clay Powder and another ounce of Plaster of Paris because it was still a little thin. I recommend using a whisk to mix everything because it goes faster, but you can use a paint knife as I did in my recent YouTube video, or anything you have on hand. I ended up with 8 oz. of paint, 2 oz. of Plaster of Paris, ad 2 oz. of French White Clay Powder.
How I Would Use This
I want to encourage you to check out my latest YouTube video so you can see the texture of these ended up but I love the versatility of these two paints. Being able to use my oval brush from Paint Pixie and my paint knife adds so much to an otherwise plain canvas painting!
You can see the way the brush and paint knife worked great together in this picture but you can see it with much more life in my video!
I hope that you enjoyed this quick tutorial and if you try this, please let me know how it went! I always love seeing how people use things that I talk about!
Thank you for supporting,
Terri Stovall
This has really been informative. Clay based paints are really pricey! This helps a lot. Thank you!