Annie Sloan Decorative Chalk Paint® vs. "Chalk" product

We have heard from a few of our customers of a new product Joann's is carrying. It is called "Chalk" and we wanted to see how it compared to our Annie! So, we did some comparisons and painted a little piece tonight. We used Annie Sloan's Provence and a similar color from the "Chalk" product line. (Ps. All of the colors were almost identical to Annie's color collection). Even though the price tag was cheaper than Annie Sloan, I can definitely tell that you get what you pay for! So, here are our results from our experiment!

First, the paint was incredibly difficult to open! Once the lid was off there was a plastic/paper seal to open... and this was what happened when trying to open it... 

And then once it was open, the smell was not very pleasant. It was pretty strong to smell when painting inside, so if using it you would probably want to paint outside.

Next, we painted! We split the table down the middle and painted one half (the left side in these pictures) in the "Chalk" product, and the right side in Annie's Chalk Paint®. Each side was given 2 coats of paint. Both products dried in less than 20 minutes (the "Chalk" product recommends waiting 2 hours between coats), but as you can tell, the "Chalk" product would need a 3rd coat to get full coverage.

"Chalk" is on the left and Annie Sloan is on the right in picture both above and below.

So, in conclusion, here are my comparisons...

Size: 

"Chalk" only comes in 8oz jars, and they are $7.99

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® comes in two sizes (we used a 4oz pot here). Pots are $12.95 and Quarts are $39.95

Smell:

"Chalk" had quite the smell. I would not paint with this product indoors (product does not say whether or not it is VOC free.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® has no smell and is completely safe (no VOCs)

Coverage:

"Chalk" says it will cover 20 square feet per 8oz jar. For this project, I would have done a 3rd coat to get full coverage.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® quarts cover 150 square feet (about 3 dresser size pieces of furniture). 4oz Pots cover about 19 square feet (that's almost double the size of the 8oz Pot from "Chalk")

Prep:

I did not prep this piece at all (didn't even clean it!) and both products stuck well. 

I now have a bunch of leftover "Chalk" that I am curious to see the shelf life on! The Annie Sloan paint I used has been sitting on my shelf for 2 years and still worked like a dream!

Happy Thursday night!

xoxo