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Best Overall for any DIY Project: Rust-Oleum Ultra Matte Interior Chalked Acrylic Paint
Best Chalk Paint for Furniture: Retique It Chalk Finish Renaissance Furniture Paint
Best Chalk Paint for Kitchen Cabinets: Krylon Chalky Finish Quart
Best Chalk Paint For Fabric: Country Chic Chalk Style Paint
Best Chalk Paint for Crafts: FolkArt Home Décor Chalk Furniture & Craft
Best Value For Money: Dixie Belle Chalk Finish Furniture Paint
Best Spray Chalk Paint: Krylon Chalky Finish Spray Paint
Best Sealant Chalk Paint: Rustoleum Matte Clear Chalked Protective Topcoat
Best Chalk Paint for Walls: Annie Sloan Chalk Paint
Chalk Paint is a kind of decorative water-based paint that does not require you to do any kind of preparation work like priming or sanding and can help all the DIYers. Chalk Paint can be used for painting Kitchen Cabinets, Furniture, Walls, picture frames, or any other DIY project. The great thing about chalk paint is that without doing the preparation work it can still give great consistency and help create a matte chic finish. We have researched and selected the best chalk paint for the purpose considering the amount of time it takes to dry, how easy it is to use, its coverage, and the surfaces it works with.
Best Chalk Paints Reviewed
Rust-Oleum Ultra Matte Interior Chalked Acrylic Paint Review
Positives:
- Priming is Not Required
- Suitable for multiple surfaces including Metal and Wood
- Dries very Fast
- Doesn’t have an odor
Negatives:
- Not Many color varieties are available
This product is a multipurpose product that can be used on all kinds of surfaces wood, metal, or ceramic. There are only 11 color options available and if you need more colors you will have to mix colors to create them. It takes 30 minutes for the surface to dry after putting this paint and you can apply a second coat after two hours.
Size: 30 ounces
Color Shades: 11
Time Required For Drying: 30 minutes
Coverage: 150 square feet per quart
Retique It Chalk Finish Renaissance Furniture Paint Review
Positives:
- Dries very Fast within 30 minutes.
- You Can Clean it Easily.
- Has No Odor
- The product is low on VOCs ( Volatile Organic Compounds)
Negatives:
- Not Resistant to Water
- Multiple coats of chalk paint would be required in order to reach the desired color.
Retique It Chalk Finish is the best chalk paint for furniture. This product is mostly free of all odors and doesn’t require much preparation work to apply it. This product is not water resistant and you need to buy a sealer that is water resistant on top of the product. You will also need at least 2 coats of paint to get the color you want but is very fast to dry usually in 30 minutes and you can apply the second coat in 2 hours.
Size: 1 Gallon
Color Shades: 40 +
Time Required For Drying: 30 minutes
Coverage: 100 square feet per quart
Krylon Chalky Finish Quart Review
Positives:
- Dries very Fast within 1 hour.
Negatives:
- You have to apply priming and sanding before applying the paint.
- Not Suited for dark surfaces.
Krylon Chalky Finish is the best chalk paint for cabinets and can be used in your kitchens and bathrooms for DIY painting of cabinets so that the wait time is not too long. Since you have to apply this on cabinets this one would need preparation like priming and sanding especially more if the cabinet surface is of dark color and also because you need the cabinets to have consistency and evenness. The color choices are however limited to only grey and white
Size: 1 Quart (32 ounces)
Color Shades: 3
Time Required For Drying: 60 minutes ( 1 Hour)
Primer Required: Primer is recommended though is not a hard requirement
Country Chic Chalk Style Paint Review
Positives:
- Fast Drying within 30 minutes.
- Free of Chemicals.
- Very Good Coverage.
- A lot of Variety is available in colors.
Negatives:
- Scratches tend to Show up Prominently.
Country Chic chalk style is the best chalk paint for fabrics or upholstery. Clean and vacuum the upholstery and then spray some water on it and then dilute your chalk paint and use a brush to apply on to the fabric.
Size: 16 fl oz
Color Shades: 50
Time Required For Drying: 30 minutes
Coverage: 120 square feet per quart
FolkArt Home Décor Chalk Furniture & Craft Review
Positives:
- Very Easy to Clean after crafts
- Is Pocket friendly
- Has Multiple sizes
- Fast drying
Negatives:
- Lack of Variety in colors
Folkart home decor is the Best chalk paint for crafts as the biggest problem in doing crafts is storing the paint that is leftover and that can be completely avoided with this paint as it comes in small bottles of 2 oz which can be used just for crafts. This paint can be used on all surfaces and is very pocket friendly.
Size: 2 fl oz
Color Shades: 25
Time Required For Drying: 30 minutes
Coverage: 2.5 square feet per ounce
Dixie Belle Chalk Finish Furniture Paint Review
Positives:
- Great Coverage
- Fast drying
Negatives:
- As the paint is thinner can create more mess
Dixie Belle Chalk Finish Furniture is the best value-for-money chalk paint pick.
Size: 8 fl oz
Color Shades: 75
Time Required For Drying: 30 minutes
Primer: Not Required
Rustoleum Matte Clear Chalked Protective Topcoat Review
Positives:
- This works as a sealant that enhances the durability of your chalk paint.
Negatives:
- It works as a sealant so besides this, you will have to buy the chalk paint
Rustoleum Matte Clear Chalked Protective is a sealant to chalk paint and though most chalk paints claim that they don’t need a sealant adding this will help improve the durability of your chalk paint. This works only if your product is kept indoors
Size: 30 ounces
Time Required For Drying: 30 minutes
Krylon Chalky Finish Spray Paint Review
Positives:
- You can apply it using a spray so no brush is needed.
- Great Matte based finish
Negatives:
- It is not water-based but oil based so technically not a true chalk paint.
- Not suited for large projects as the amount is just 12 ounces.
Krylon Chalky finish is the best spray chalk paint option on our list. This is very suited for those who don’t want to use a brush to paint their projects just shake your spray can well and wear goggles before applying it.
Size: 12 ounces
Color Shades: 15
Time Required For Drying:25 minutes
Coverage: 25 square feet per can
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Review
Positives:
- Suitable for Most walls Concrete, Glass, wood, and metal
- Works great even for large areas
- Has Great Coverage
- Great Pigmentation
Negatives:
- Very expensive
- Hard to Find this product
Annie Sloan is synonymous with chalk paint as she is the one who invented it in 1990 and everyone who has used it has admired this product for its texture which is smooth and silky as well as how easy it is to use this product. This product is very suitable for surfaces that are hard for other paint products to adhere to like brick, concrete, stucco, and panels. This product is also the most expensive chalk paint around and also hard to find but if you really are looking for a high-quality product this is by far the best option. This product can only be bought from the stockists of Annie Sloan and is not available online so availability is a big issue for this.
Size: 1 Quart
Number of Colors: 43
Drying Time: 60 to 120 minutes ( 1 to 2 hours)
Coverage: 140 square feet per liter
Best Chalk Paints Brands
How to Select the Best Chalk Paint
Time Taken For Drying
Most chalk paints dry fast and the usual time taken for drying is between 30 minutes to an hour but you will need multiple coats to get to your desired color so check the drying time of your product before buying it.
Coverage
While every product makes different claims about the coverage you should mostly ignore the claims as the real results depend on the wood. Darker color wood would require you to use more product while if you want your wood to look weathered you would not need to cover the wood completely. As a rough parameter, 1 ounce of chalk paint covers 1 to 3 square feet but still check the label and buy depending on the size of your project.
Surface
Always check the label of the product to see what surface the product is compatible with. Most chalk paints are compatible with a range of surfaces like wood, metal, ceramics, and glass but still, check the label before you buy.
Product Sizes
Chalk paint is available in quart or 32 ounces and roughly for every project of 60 to 140 square feet area, you will need a quart of chalk paint. A dresser has a usual surface area of 100 to 120 square feet so figure out the area of the project you are going for and then figure out the size of the product that you need. Ideally, you can divide the Price per ounce of the product to figure out if the product is in your budget or not.
Takeaway
Our Best overall pick for chalk paint is Rust-Oleum Ultra Matte Interior Chalked Acrylic Paint as it is very durable and works with a wide variety of surfaces while having great adherence. Our budget and value-for-money pick is Shabby Chic Chalked Furniture Paint