Month: October 2014

Way back in early summer I picked up this farmhouse table at the ECCO neighborhood garage sales (along with that first mini cabinet!).

Personally, I’m not a fan of the leaving the leaves on these tables.  They are ten times more fabulous without their leaves.  So I removed the leaves and saved them for a future project.

I took my inspiration for this table from this pin.

And accordingly, I painted the base in MMS milk paint in Boxwood.  I purposely did no sanding at all because I wanted to maximize chipping for a beat up farm table look.

And I did end up with some fantastic chippyness.

And I love the green base with the beat up wood top.

I staged this table as a desk with a vintage Underwood and some old books in varying shades of green …

And with the most charming little chair …

Believe it or not, no one purchased this desk at the Carriage House sale.  I’ve been trying to think of a spot for it in my own house, but I haven’t come up with anything yet.  I’ll keep thinking about it though.  In the meantime, how about you?  Need a fabulous chippy farmhouse table?

When I popped by the Farmhouse Inspired booth at Oronoco Gold Rush back in August, the owner Jody told me she was giving demos on a layering technique that she has been using lately.  She showed me a painted chair that she was using for the demo, and it was fab.  So, I tucked that little bit of info away in the back of my head.  It popped back up when I came across this blah little oak chair that I purchased at a garage sale while my sis was here.

 Basically, the twist on this layering technique is that you get the best of both worlds; chalk paint and milk paint.  You’ve probably seen the comparisons, the pros and cons of each product.  They both have their place in my heart.  Some projects are more suited for milk paint, and some for chalk paint.  But with this technique, you can take advantage of the best qualities of both!

You start with an undercoat of chalk paint.  Using the chalk paint eliminates the need for much, if any, prep work at all since it will stick without chipping or flaking.  This gives you a base color that can then show through your 2nd layer, which will be milk paint.

In this case, I skipped the prep.  No sanding, no cleaning, no nothin’.  I just painted on one coat of Annie Sloan’s Aubusson.

Oooooo, pretty!  Of course, this is without any sanding or waxing; so far you only see the chalky finish that comes with chalk paint.

Next I wanted to make sure I got lots of chippy-ness with my milk paint, so I used a hemp oil resist.  Basically all this means is that I added a layer of hemp oil in all the spots on the chair that I wanted to get chippy.

Then I mixed up some MMS milk paint in Eulalie’s Sky, and I left it slightly thicker than usual.  I painted on one thick coat.  Since I wanted extra chipping/crackling, I gave it a shot of heat with my blow dryer (this is not the same blow dryer I use on my hair, I swear).

You can see that it is starting to chip from the blow drying.

I then left the chair to fully dry overnight.  The next evening I got out the sand paper and sanded harder in areas that I thought would be more worn naturally, and a little more lightly everywhere else.  I was hoping for a lot more chipping, but I did get some fairly realistic looking chips.

I was able to sand lightly down to the undercoat in some areas, which gives a worn appearance.  I finished by vacuuming away the dust and adding a final coat of MMS furniture wax.  Here is the final result.

It’s pretty sweet.

You’ll probably see me experiment with this some more in the future.  I think Annie Sloan’s Duck Egg would make a lovely undercoat with some MMSMP in Linen on top.  I’ll keep you posted if I give that a try!

Last week my co-workers Sue & Cathy and I went garage saling over our lunch hour, and I picked up this dresser.

It was pretty beat up, as you can sort of see in the ‘before’ picture.  But on the plus side, it had all of the original hardware, the drawers all worked well, and I knew it would be much cuter painted.

I really thought about painting it in MMS Kitchen Scale, but in the back of my mind I just kept seeing it painted yellow.  Then I realized why.  It’s basically the same style as this famous piece by Miss Mustard herself.

In fact, take a close look, aside from the shape (tall v. wide), it is the same dresser.  I assume they are the gentlemen’s and ladies’ version of the same bedroom set.

In the end I decided, why fight it?  I can only see it painted yellow, so yellow it shall be.  I will call it an homage to the incredible style of Miss Mustard herself.

Let’s go ahead and point out how my version pales in comparison to Miss Mustard.  First, the pattern on the top drawers.  You can see that this pattern was there originally.  I don’t think it was an actual inlay, but just stained to look like an inlay.  Once painted, I could barely even see the outline.  I very much admire Marian’s ability to paint designs like this free-hand on her drawer fronts, but I do not have that skill.  So my upper drawers remained plain.

Miss Mustard also painted some of the bands around the front legs of her dresser white, and I did not think to do that.

As for the top, Miss Mustard stripped and stained the top of her dresser in Dark Walnut.  I just stripped and added a dark wax to mine.  I think her’s is better.  Although I will say that I think if someone is looking for a more rustic, aged look, mine fits that bill.

Now let’s get a close up look at the gorgeous chippy finish I ended up with on this dresser.

And that right there is why I love Miss Mustard Seed milk paint.  In a nutshell.  You simply won’t get this look with a chalk paint.  This dresser has the perfect amount of chippyness to look authentic without it being over the top.  I love it when that happens!  Standing next to this dresser in person, one would really be tempted to believe this is an authentic 75 year old finish.

Here are the boring painting details for those of you who want to know (everyone else can skip this part).  I stripped the top, sanded the body lightly, painted three coats of MMS milk paint in Mustard Seed Yellow on the body, and three coats of MMS milk paint in Linen on the details.  It took three coats to get full coverage on this piece, and I didn’t want a streaky look.  I waxed the body with MMS clear wax, and I waxed the top with two coats of my own custom blend dark wax.

This very charming yellow dresser will be available at the Carriage House Sale on Saturday.  Hope you can stop by!

P.S.  One little housekeeping note here.  Do any of you blog in wordpress?  I have been really frustrated by how fuzzy my photos seem once I load them on the blog.  Recently I discovered that if you click on the photo and bring it up in another tab, you lose the fuzziness.  Maybe all of you already knew this?  Anyway, my tip to you if you want to see a picture in more detail with less fuzziness, just click on it (or right click, select ‘open in a new tab’).  And if any of you know why this happens, or if there is a way that I can correct it, please let me know!