Painting in a New Direction

If you hate to paint or you're a wallpaper person, Chalk It Up Norcross just may change your opinion.

Chalk It Up Norcross, located in The Nest in downtown, offers a different kind of paint than what most are used to. Chalk paint, as opposed to the usual latex paint, is a heavily pigmented acrylic paint that can stick to virtually anything: glass, furniture, wood, floors, ceramics, anything.

It can give an old antique look to something you've been wanting to restore but just didn't have the time to, and it can add a small silver accent to kitchen moldings. It can even give a pottery barn finish to a picture frame that's been flaking for years.

What's more amazing about chalk paint is the varieties of things you can do with it while only having to take minimal steps. There's no sanding, stripping or priming the material beforehand--you just brush on the chalk paint, wax it and you're done, so you don't need to be an artist or hire professional help.

"When I discovered this paint, that's when I just said, 'OK, my life has become easy,'" said Lynn White, owner of Chalk It Up Norcross.

White, who's been a faux finisher for 25 years, picked up the chalk paint at a workshop last year and decided to open up a shop at The Nest in October. There are only five stores in Georgia that carry this particular paint, which was created by Oxford, England-native Annie Sloan in the mid-80s.

With the help  ofAnnie Sloan's big brushes and paint, which comes in 29 different colors that you can mix to create new shades, White is able to teach customers how to do everything from the basic painting to all sorts of techniques such as gilding, leafing, lime washing and tinting. 

"Our goal is to help people see how they can create beauty in their homes," said White. "There's no limit on who we can teach. Anyone can learn this technique."

White offers workshops for adults and kids as young as 5. Even though in many of her classes she offers all of the materials, she also holds a bring-your-own-item workshop where students can do just that: Bring in something from their home that they want to paint and White will guide them through it, whether it's basic straight painting to decorative painting.

Another benefit from this paint is the drying time, which is fast compared to other paints, and combined with the fact that there are very few steps, chalk paint makes it very user-centered and less time consuming.

White's upcoming workshops include:

• Intro classes on May 18 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., May 23 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., June 1 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and June 13 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Each class is $95. 
• Kids classes on June 19 and June 30, both from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

Chalk It Up Norcross is located inside The Nest at 17 College Street in Historic Downtown Norcross. For more information on Chalk It Up Norcross and to sign up for classes, contact owner Lynn White at lynnw1726@comcast.net or 770-331-8265.

For every can of paint White sells, she is donating a dollar to The Journey House, a South Carolina organization that aims to build a family-centered home that house families with children who have life-changing illnesses while getting treatment.