Just wondering if anyone here has ever made their own chalk paint for up cycling old furniture? The paint I want to use by Annie Sloan is far too expensive here.

There are many different recipes but it seems a little like trial and error which can sometimes turn into a little like wasting money.

I have a recipe that uses calcium carbonate powder and it looks as if it might give a good result and it's so inexpensive but for the life of me I can't find where I could buy it in a larger quantities than the containers from health food outlets.

Other recipes include baking soda , spackle (sp?) or dry wall paste, (or spakfilla as it's called here), and also plaster of paris, and I imagine that would be extremely messy and need a blender and there's a goodbye to the blender although I could just use a cheap stick blender.

So, just if anyone has ever done this, can you please let me know what has worked for you.

thanks.

update.

I found calcium carbonate fine powder in large quantities at a pet and livestock store.

It's apparently fed to horses along with phosphorus when certain dietary requirements are required.