First of all, a big thanks to everyone who left an encouraging comment on my last post.  You all have convinced me to not give up on home improvement projects in 2017, and you’ve reminded me that it’s OK to keep plugging away at them over time rather than feeling like I have to get things done in the blink of an eye.  So maybe you’ll see one of two in 2017 after all!

But in the meantime, I’m getting out my paint and going back to basics with painting some furniture starting with some projects using Homestead House milk paint.  I mentioned a while back that they gifted me with some of what I like to call their ‘house brand’ of milk paint so I’m going to dig in and start painting!

I don’t know about you, but I tend to find that paint colors in real life almost always look a little bit different than they do in photos on the computer screen.  In fact, sometimes they look a lot different.  This is something that I really struggle with when editing my own blog photos; trying to get a realistic representation of a color in the photos.  I work on getting the white balance right so that the color looks true, but I know I sometimes miss the mark.

One of the reasons that I’m so comfortable working with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint is because I’ve used nearly all of her colors before so I know exactly what they look like in person regardless of how they look in photos on pinterest.  I know what shade of blue to expect if I paint something in French Enamel for example, and I know how it’s going to change if I put hemp oil on it instead of wax.  It’s my comfort zone.

So when Homestead House asked me if I’d like to try some of their other line of milk paint I got a little nervous.  I didn’t know what these colors were really going to look like in person!

However, as I was going through their color choices I realized that some of the Homestead House milk paint colors are the same as their Fusion colors.  So far I’ve been happy to find that the Midnight Blue milk paint looks pretty much exactly like the Midnight Blue Fusion paint.  And the Limestone milk paint looks pretty much like the Limestone Fusion paint.

But the Homestead House milk paint line also has some really pretty colors that they don’t make in Fusion paint, Cartier, Craftsman, Loyalist …

I’m sure you can see why these colors appealed to me!

Before using a new color on a full sized piece of furniture, I like to mix up a small sample and paint it on a board.  Just so I have a good idea how the color looks in real life as opposed to on a computer screen.

So I mixed up 4 of my new colors to give them a look-see.

1 Craftsman, 2 Upper Canada Green, 3 Loyalist, 4 Laurentien.

Pretty, pretty, pretty, right?  I’ll be using all of them down the road for sure, but my favorite was the Laurentien.  This should come as no surprise to anyone since Laurentien is my favorite Fusion color.  I was so hoping that it would be just as gorgeous in milk paint and I was not disappointed.

So I chose the Laurentien to spruce up the little thrift store chair that I purchased a while back.

If you look closely towards the bottom of the chair, you can see that it was spray painted.  I’m guessing that the painter was running out of paint, or maybe running out of time, because they didn’t get good coverage there.  I knew that adding just one coat of milk paint would be a quick fix and help even things up.

I gave this chair a quick pass with some Homestead House furniture wax and added a stenciled number to the back rest just for fun.

You may be wondering why I didn’t get much chipping when painting milk paint over spray paint, but I actually did get a bit.  You just don’t notice it because the colors are so similar.  If you look closely at this next photo you can see the chipping on the back rest especially right under the ’19.’

See the paler blue looking spots?  That’s chipping.

Now that I have my color tests done, I’ve picked out colors for several upcoming projects so be sure to stay tuned.

If you’d like to try Homestead House milk paint yourself, you can order the paint as well as the furniture wax directly from their website {here}.  If you are feeling limited by the colors available in Miss Mustard Seed paint, this is a great way to expand your horizons a bit.  If you prefer to buy your paint in person, check out their map of local retailers {here}.  There is a map of retailers in North America, and also links to retailers in the UK, Europe and Australia.  Unfortunately for you locals, I don’t see any retailers in Minnesota yet.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we get some soon!