Tips and tricks
In a past life, my husband gained several years of professional experience painting cabinets. Below is the advice he gave me when I began painting furniture to go in our home.
On choosing a brush: "For most applications you want to use a two inch or a two-and-a-half inch angled brush, a synthetic that's designed for water based paints."
On holding the brush: "You need to hold the brush on the base with the handle of the base sitting between your thumb and your index finger. Then you hold the base of your brush with your fingers. You never, ever hold the brush by the handle with your whole hand when painting."
On loading the brush: "Don't put too much paint on the brush, but reload it frequently. The purpose of the brush is to soak up the paint, and the paint should naturally flow out of the brush onto the surface that's being painted. You should never use your brush to smear paint."
On strokes for flat surfaces: "You need to maintain a wet edge on whatever you're painting. Paint in sections so that the edge of the area you're painting stays wet. You usually start the stroke with the brush being held down."
A little extra: You should always keep a container of water nearby to drop your paint brush in.
Note: This is one of several pieces I painted when we moved into our new house. For it, I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Parris Blue. It's a beautiful couler, but hard to find in rural Alabama and at $37 a quart, it's a fancier fix.
Also, there are a lot of different techniques to employ when doing each of these tasks, many of which are explored at Annie Sloan's website. I'm discussing the techniques that worked for us, but I recommend taking a look at these Chalk Paint-specific ideas too.
Cost:
Second-hand chest of drawers: $125
Annie Sloan Parris Blue divided by about half: $18.
Total: $145
