Giving New Life to Old Candlesticks with Chalk Paint

Hey Hey! It’s Wednesday and that means another guest post from another fabulous blogger, Pam from The Birch Cottage! She’s got a really easy paint project to share with y’all today. She’s giving new life to old candlesticks with chalk paint. Enjoy!

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Hello, Houseologie readers! I’m Pam from The Birch Cottage and I’m so honored to be here today sharing my DIY project on how to use chalk paint to refinish candlesticks. But, first, a little intro is in order. I blog at The Birch Cottage where I share DIY projects, family friendly recipes and our home remodeling journey that my husband and I are undertaking on his childhood home.

Giving New Life to Old Candlesticks with Chalk Paint

Unlike a few of my blogger friends that you’ve met recently, Trish Sutton and Jennifer and Kitty, I don’t have the pleasure of living in a warm climate. I live in the heartland of the Midwest (Ohio).  But, Spring is arriving soon nonetheless.  And there’s no better time to be sharing about giving new life to something old than when we are all so very ready for Spring to arrive. (Honestly, some of us are ready to skip right to summer!)

I found these old candlesticks in the ashes of Nanny’s fireplace. They looked really rough. I mean, they were covered in ashes and candle wax. But, I thought they had promise. So, I cleaned off the ashes and stuck the candlesticks in the freezer for a few hours so the wax would harden and I could literally just chip the frozen wax right off the candlesticks!

Once I had the candlesticks all clean and de-waxed, I sanded them slightly just so I’d have a nice even surface to work with. Honestly, when you use chalk paint on surfaces like this, there’s really not much preparation. You simply want the cleanest surface to work with as possible. So, if you’re using chalk paint on a piece of furniture, old picture frame or old candlestick, you just want to clean off any debris and dust before you begin painting. And, of course, you want the surface to be dry.

Chalk Paint Recipe

3 parts Paint (latex or flat paint)
1 part Plaster of Paris
Water to mix

I think you’ll agree that these candlesticks looked pretty bad. So bad, in fact, that my husband was sure they were headed for the dumpster. I’m so glad that I kept the candlesticks. It really is amazing how you can give new life with chalk paint to something that started out so ugly.  Well, after cleaning my candlesticks, I simply applied my chalk paint. I applied three layers of chalk paint, allowing time for each layer to completely dry and sanding lightly between layers.

After the third coat of chalk paint, I sanded the candlesticks a little more aggressively as I was going for the worn, sort of shabby chic finish. Once I had the look I wanted, I applied two coats of polycrylic, sanding lightly between coats. I affixed two new candles to the tops of my candle sticks and voila, I was giving new life to old candlesticks with chalk paint!

I hope you found this simple DIY project inspiring enough that you’ll think, “Hmm, what can I give new life to with chalk paint?” By the way, there are numerous chalk paints on the market and you can purchase them at your favorite home improvement store. But, did you know that you can even make your own chalk paint? If you’re interested, I previously shared a recipe for homemade chalk paint on The Birch Cottage blog. So, if you’d like to give it a try, just hop on over here to read all about it! I even made a printable for the chalk paint recipe that you can download here.

If you enjoyed this project, I’d be honored if you were to visit The Birch Cottage and check out some of my other DIY projects or family friendly recipes.

Happy Spring!!