ALYSSA Bestmann was a retail manager and a photographer before she unwittingly became an entrepreneur during a rough patch in life.
"When I was separating I didn't want to be a wedding photographer any more and that's when I heard about chalk paint," the Muswellbrook mum of three says with a smile.
Ms Bestmann's mother told her about the chalk paint brand Annie Sloan, named after the British artist considered to have pioneered the DIY "chalking" furniture movement when she developed her eponymous paint 30 years ago. For the uninitiated, chalk paint is a matte paint used to give old or new furniture a facelift, often in a "shabby chic" style.
A keen furniture restorer in her teens, Ms Bestmann noted that chalk paint was costly, hard to source in Newcastle, and nobody, it seemed, was making it in Australia. "Well, there was one brand," she says, "but I wasn't fussed on it and I thought 'I'll have a go at making it myself'."
Armed only with a love of high school chemistry, she researched then spent six months in her garage trialling her own chalk paint recipe.
"It is basically similar to acrylic wall paint, with a few extra minerals ... that give it an extra chalkiness and make it adhere a lot better than normal," she says, adding that there are a few secret ingredients she can't reveal.
Once she had perfected a base chalk paint mix, she gave it to friends and families to try then did a local market: "I sold a little - not heaps but it got my name out," she says.
Fast forward five years and Chalked Up Furniture Paint now has six stockists between the Central Coast and Newcastle and inland, with a range of 25 paints. Ms Bestmann also makes a beeswax polish for sealing, using local beeswax.
Ms Bestmann likes chalk paint because it is forgiving.
"I immediately liked how easy it is to use, you don't need to sand or prime your furniture like you do with standard paint, you can just slap on a coat of top paint, wax it and you have a new piece of furniture," she says.
"Chalking" helped her during a testing period.
"Painting was good to clear my head," she says simply. "I liked the feeling of accomplishment it gives you - you have that piece of furniture at home, you walk past it and feel good about yourself."
Ms Bestmann is proud her paint is Australian made: she uses minerals mined here and a local printer for labels. Each week she makes 100 tins, aided by her brother.
Plans to push the brand nationally and even globally have been delayed by her busy life as a mum. Not to mention the lockdown.
"I kind of like it being small now as it suits my lifestyle," she says. "I like to keep things local - I am conscious of my own carbon footprint."
Her hobby is now a full-time job that pays her wage.
Last year she taught workshops at her Gunnedah stockist's shop to help women affected by drought. "They said it was such a relief to sit and paint and not worry about feeding animals."
Chalking also builds confidence: "The hardest bit is deciding on the paint colour. Once you do it it's easy - it's just making the leap."
