Using Rust-Oleum Chalked Coastal Blue Spray Paint on Furniture

Hey there everyone! I hope you are having a great day and you’re ready to paint some furniture. I am pretty excited to share my experience using Rust-Oleum Chalked Coastal Blue Spray Paint. As soon as I saw the spray can on the shelf I thought to myself “hey this would be a pretty fun review”. So you guessed it, I finally purchased a couple of spray cans and decided it was time to test it out.

Rust-Oleum offers a variety of spray chalk paint that I plan on testing as well, for now, this Coastal Blue spray paint is the only one I have tested out. I test this paint on an old end table I found at the local thrift store in my area, it was $14.99 and I am currently in the process of selling it. Let’s take a look at it before we got started.

end table makeover before — before the makeover

It was in pretty good shape considering and I also loved the style. I knew it was a good piece of furniture to makeover. Let’s get started!

Getting Started

So the first thing I did was clean off the old end table with mineral spirits, my go-to choice for a good deep cleaning before I get started. Just grab a cloth pour some mineral spirits out and start wiping. Make sure you are using mineral spirits in a well-ventilated area like outside or in a garage with the door open wide. The stuff is pretty strong.

Next, I decided I wanted to use stripper on the tabletop and the front drawer. The plan is to stain them dark brown to match up with the chalked coastal blue spray paint.

After cleaning up the mess from the stripper and removing all the old finish I sanded down the top and the drawer face. This was to make sure they were ready for stain after painting.

Priming Time

Now I could finally prepare for this Rust-Oleum spray painting job! I grabbed my 220 grit sanding sponge and scuffed up the area where I was going to spray the chalk paint on, but before using the chalk paint I thought I should spray a quick layer of Rust-Oleum flat primer. This chalk paint does not require a primer on all surfaces, but for longevity, I wanted a primed surface. I taped up my tabletop with painters tape and cardboard to prevent getting paint on it and then began spraying.

white rust-oleum primer spray can — rust-oleum flat white primer

After letting the primer dry I used my sand sponge one more time before it was painting time. Don’t forget to grab a clean rag to clean up any dust before applying the paint.

Grab your Rust-Oleum chalked coastal blue spray paint and shake it up because it is time to paint! There is something important worth mentioning here, do not spray a lot at a time, we want to avoid sagging paint and dripping edges. That’s one thing I learned the hard way about spray paint, it is pretty easy to overpaint an area causing unattractive drip marks.

Applying Rust-Oleum Chalked Coastal Blue Spray Paint

Shake your spray can vigorously for a couple of minutes before getting started, this enables the liquid materials inside the can to mix together. You want to prevent spraying out this unmixed formula. I like to grab a piece of scrap wood I have kicking around to test my spray can, sometimes the paint comes out poorly initially and by testing first, you are prepping the can for a smooth spray experience.

Now, lightly spray going back and forth the piece of furniture, don’t worry too much about missing a tiny spot because we can get it on coat number 2. But we don’t want to miss a huge area. Spray the entire piece from head to toe, get behind each and every leg, do a final inspection beforehand so you won’t need to apply a 3rd coat. We want to stick with 2 because that’s really enough.

spraying chalk paint on furniture — spraying on coastal blue by rust-oleum

After letting the first coat of paint dry, I left it for a few hours, I came back and used the 220 grit sanding sponge to make everything feel smooth before the last coat of paint. I wiped up the dust and got ready to paint again.

The final coat is easy, just spray the entire surface one more time evenly and lightly. We don’t want to spray too much paint or we will have to sand it up and apply another coat, a time-consuming mistake, forgivable but time-consuming.

blue coastal chalk paint — after applying the second coat

After the second coat, I waited until the paint dried so I could begin staining the project to get things finished up. I applied 2 coats of stain so it could be as dark as I wanted it. I am using Ebony Minwax penetrating stain to get a dark wooden finish.

Applying a Topcoat on Spray Chalk Paint

You are probably wondering what kind of topcoat protection you are going to use on Rust-Oleums spray chalk paint?

The best choice topcoat for Rust-Oleum chalked spray paint is wax. Using a wax brush or a clean lint-free rag apply the finishing wax over the chalk painted surface. After letting the wax dry for 15 minutes you can polish it.

I used Varathane finishing wax, but any finishing wax should do the trick. The most popular choice is Minwax paste finishing wax, so if you want to try out a finishing wax give Minwax a go.

Anyways, after I had the stain on and everything together I realized the Coastal Blue wasn’t matching up with the stain I wanted it to. I made an executive decision to apply a dark decorative finishing wax over the clear wax. Typically, when applying dark wax to furniture you still apply the clear wax first, so there weren’t any issues for me to do so.

I am using a Behr wax I found at my local home depot, but KILZ Protective Sealing Wax is a great alternative available on Amazon. Anyways, following the same steps as the clear wax, I applied this stuff all over the painted area to create a darker look for the blue. Essentially, my goal was to better match it with the darker stain.

applying behr wax to furniture — applying dark wax

After buffing the dark wax there were a few more steps I needed to take to completely finish up this newly painted end table.

I am going to spray on a water-based topcoat finish over the end tabletop and also over the stained drawer. The reason I wanted to use a spray-on topcoat is that they are typically more scratch-resistant than wax would be. Plus, they dry super quick and I can get it ready to sell!

Painting the Drawer Pull

Before finishing up, I needed to clean up the drawer pull to fit into the new design. I sanded the pull with some 320 grit paper before applying some new paint. I chose a gold finish, the paint I am going to use is a Rust-Oleum Specialty Metallic Gold spray paint. I used this stuff many times on various projects, I realized if there is no protection coat this stuff can get ugly. It will get fingerprints and chip away, to make it last long I either rub wax all over the sprayed piece or I will grab my spray-on finish and layer up 2 coats. This project I did a mixture, I sprayed on my clear coat finish and added some dark wax to match the color scheme.

Finally…

It has finally reached the end, with all the hard work put into this project we have a final piece ready for a new home. The process of using Rust-Oleums spray on chalk paint was rather easy and quick. If you wanted you could probably get this project finished in a day if starting early and having quick dry times.

Here is a quick recap of everything I did to this piece:

cleaned with mineral spirits
stripped the tabletop and drawer
sanded down the top and drawer for staining
lightly sanded the rest of the end table
sprayed on primer
sprayed on 2 coats of Rust-Oleums Coastal Blue Chalk Paint
applied clear wax
applied dark wax
stained and sprayed topcoat over stained areas
painted drawer pull gold
FINISHED

Photos of the Finished Product

The Verdict: Rust-Oleum Chalked Coastal Blue Spray Paint Reviewed

After using the spray paint version of Rust-Oleums Coastal Blue Chalk Paint I can say the outcome exceeded my expectations. Well, initially I did not think spray painting furniture would look remotely ok, but clearly, you can’t actually tell it was spray painted. The product adheres to the surface quite well, leaving a smooth and durable finish.

Applying wax over this chalk paint was super easy, I just rubbed the wax on and waited 15 minutes to polish it off. However, one thing about this color is how “blue” it is, I feel that the current style is a darker blue, more like a navy, making the only real negative thought I have on this paint. But to simply fix this I applied some dark wax to tone it down a few notches.

Overall, I would recommend this product for all furniture painters, especially beginners, it is such an easy paint for a quick project. It dries fast and it goes on quickly, I’m not going to complain about that. I would rather it be a bit darker, but hey, some people might want that brighter blue. If I had searched this product online I would say the color is not what I would expect. Maybe my white primer lightened things up? Who knows, it definitely doesn’t have that dark look as I expected. However, I think giving it a try wouldn’t hurt! Good luck!