Home Bloggers' Crafty Ways to Save

Kim researched online and consulted with furniture refinishers to come up with a formula to refresh her chair, shown at right. She mixed 1½ cups of Behr's Premium Plus semigloss latex in Cool Dusk with ½ cup of water and ½ cup of powdered calcium carbonate, the ingredient that gives the paint its chalky matte look. After painting the chair, Kim gave the new finish an aged look by roughing up the surface with sandpaper and applying two coats of wax (a clear one topped by a dark shade).
What It Cost: $16 for a quart of paint and for a 12-ounce jar of calcium carbonate from a health-food store