Local environmentally friendly paint business

A new business that takes good quality used furniture and upcycles them by changing the colour with homemade chalk paint.
Chalk It Up makes their own chalk paint to reduce the amount of leftover paint that ends up in our landfill. By changing the colour, the piece now becomes something new to have in your home.
Upcycling is the process of converting old or discarded materials into something useful and often beautiful according to Hipcycle.
“I didn’t like my coffee table I could have thrown it out but instead I brought it over and got it changed into something I love again,” said Julie Miklosi, 50, a customer at Chalk it up. “I have got

many of my things upcycled from there like old frames, a book case, my china cabinet,” said Miklosi.
”I could go and buy chalk paint witch would be easier but if I use up some of the recycled paint, I keep it out of the landfill. I also keep pieces that could of ended up on the side of the road or

garbage, so I keep that out off the landfill too,” said Kate Benedet, 51 , the owner of Chalk It Up.
“If I can reuse something and remake it then its helping the environment, it just takes one step.”
The chalk paint is made out of plaster, paris and water it also doesn’t give off as much fumes as regular paint does, it’s safer to be around, according to Benedet.
According to Environment Canada, Household hazardous waste is any substance containing ingredients that could negatively affect your safety, health or the environment. They can be found on a

wide range of products, including furniture polish, bleach, antifreeze, insecticides, paint.
“I like the idea of using recycled furniture, when I walked in there was a lot of things I could have bought,” said Jenifer, 40.
There are bigger goals for Chalk it up as well, Benedet would like to teach classes about painting and up cycling.
“My goal for this business is to get people to look at things differently, perhaps if you just change the color of something it becomes more appealing to someone, said Benedet.
Benedet even has a local paint company who likes her idea and lets her take any leftover paint they have left over from past paint jobs.
A small percentage of each sale will be donated to the Citizens Environmental Alliance.
Chalk it up will be having an open house on Saturday, November, 14 located on 2365 Edna St. and is open Tuesday-Friday 10-5 and Saturday 9-1.