Milk Painted Dresser (Shutter Grey)

Here is my newest piece!  I need to first and foremost thank my hubby for feeding my addiction by finding this dresser on the side of the road for me.  He saw it while biking home, came home right away and went with me to pick it up.  Love you Dale!!! My favourite is the beautiful moulding around the two smaller drawers.  I also love the legs and lovely scalloped edge on the bottom.

Anyways, I have decided that I want to get more comfortable with using milk paint.  I have never used the bonding agent  before and wanted to see if I liked the coverage and sandability for distressing.  I learned a few things while doing this piece.  But my lack of experience made for a really neat crackled look to the piece.

I started off with two coats of Miss Mustard Seed Iron Stone Milk Paint.  I was not happy with the coverage and needed another coat but had run out of Iron Stone.  The lack of coverage was due to the fact that my paint was not mixed fully.  There was a bunch in the bottom of the cup.  This is when Dale ran to
Value Village for me in search of an old blender.  He came home with an $8 hand blender.

This worked a charm with the MMS Shutter Grey.  I would always recommend using a blender when mixing milk paint.  I watched the tutorials on:

http://www.missmustardseedsmilkpaint.com/

where Miss Mustard Seed recommended mixing by hand so that you can feel the consistency of the paint. I have mixed by hand several times now and mixed by blender once.  Blender is definitely the way to go.

I was also very impressed with how easy it was to distress this piece.  I used fine grit sandpaper and went over all the edges by hand.  I did not want to take away from the details of this piece by heavily distressing it.  So, I kept it simple.  I then sealed it with Miss Mustard Seed Wax.  The wax really deepens the colour and richens up the look of the piece.  I hope you enjoy the pictures and are inspired to try a piece of your own.

Milk Painted Dresser Tutorial

So, I have just about the best husband a girl could ask for.  Today he took both girls to the zoo in the morning for a picnic and then went to visit his brothers who were camping in the afternoon.  That meant that I had the whole house to myself for all day!!! Hip Hip Horay!  Any sane mother would choose to have a nice bubble bath, take a nap, maybe read a book or do perusing on Pinterest.  Guess what I chose to do with my time???

That's right I refinished a dresser that the neighbours gifted to me on Thursday.  I was so excited when they gave it to me.  It was a beautiful old solid wood dresser.  It had some very nice architecture to it, which makes it so much more fun to paint. Here are some pictures of the before:

 I LOVE THE FEET!

I also loved the hardware and decided I did not need to go out and buy new ones.

This applique may be my favourite part about the dresser.  I cannot really decide what I love most about the dresser.  Lets be honest, probably that it was FREE!  :) 

When the neighbour gave the dresser to me, I knew right away what I would do with it.  It was destined for off season clothing storage in my oldest daughters room.  Since this was such a beautiful old piece, I decided it would be fitting to go Shabby Chic.  I got out the milk paint once again.  This time I planned to keep it simple and white.  Using some antiquing wax to bring it to life.  Again I used the Miss Mustard Seed Ironstone paint and wax.

 Since Hubby and the kiddies were gone, I thought I would enjoy myself.  Don't worry it was like 10:30 am when I busted this out.  I always recommend pacing yourself when doing a DIY project.

If you have never worked with milk paint before, you can learn all about it at: www.missmustardseedmilkpaint.com

There are some really good video tutorials on this site.

I mostly love it for its old rustic look.  It is very chippy and distressed, when used without the bonding agent.  It is also all natural.  Which means no VOCs to be breathing in.  And if you have kids around, you know exactly what is in the paint.

Here is what the first coat looked like:

I did 3 coats until I was happy with the coverage.  I then let it sit for 20 minutes and let the paint crack and get 'chippy.'

Once the coat is good and dry, I take a paint scrapper and very lightly move it over the surface of the piece.  The paint will begin to flake in areas where it did not bond to the furniture.  You can see the paint cracked and ready to flake before beginning this step.  I must add that my sister happened to drop by during this part and she did the flaking.  She was adamant that I give her the credit for lightly rubbing the paint scrapper over the dresser.  Can you tell she is the older sister?  Wouldn't want to miss an opportunity for a little bit of attention.  WINK!  Love you big sister.

The next step is the most labour intensive.  I laugh when I say this because it is actually pretty easy.  It is just using a little elbow grease. When I first started using furniture wax I was deathly afraid of getting too much on.  I had read some blogs where people had caked their piece of furniture with wax and had to strip it and start over.  Have no fear, if I can do it, anyone can do it.  

I applied a layer of Miss Mustard Seed Clear wax with a rag. It is really soft and buttery feeling.  Apply a thin coat, so that you cannot see streaks, but it leaves a luster.  Make sure to spread on evenly.  Meaning, no unsightly globs of wax.  Choose one spot at a time and cover it.  As the wax dries very quickly (3-5) minutes.  You should be using enough pressure to work the wax into the exposed wood.  This will help it seal properly.  After 3-5 minutes buff the wax with a clean cloth.

 After applying one coat of the clear wax, I applied a coat of the antiquing wax.  I chose to use a starburst effect on this dresser.  I did not cover it with antique wax.  Instead, I kept the darker wax to the outside edges.  This just gives it a little more dimension.  Use MMS antique wax sparingly as it does give quite a bit of colour and you will need to work it a while to ensure no streaks.

I did get the dark wax a little heavy in some spots.  When this happens, just take some clear wax and work it into the areas that you would like to soften or lighten.  Again using a little elbow grease to work up the wax will help.  Furniture wax gives a real velvety look.

I did find out at the store when I picked up my wax today, that it takes approximately 30 days for the wax to completely cure.  So act gingerly towards your piece of furniture.  I have a piece that someone set a glass on just a week after waxing and the wax lifted.  I will post my fix of it later.  However, I did read a blog once, that said she left a plant on her waxed furniture and overwatered it, not noticing for days.  It wiped right up and did not create an issue.  So, sorry I do not remember where I read this to reference it.  Nevertheless, it sounds like it is quite durable when cured.  I have a piece in my daughters room that gets bottles set on it all the time.  They are often wet fromt the bottle warmer and we have never had an issue.  It is sealed with Minwax furniture wax though.

Here you are able to see the chippy edges of the drawers.  The drawers did not chip a whole lot.  So I just sanded the edges a little.  

You can see on the side of the dresser how I kept the antique wax towards the edges.

I must say that I am in love with it.  I knew I was going to like it. But I am so giddy about it!  I am afraid that if I show the neighbour they might want it back.  My daughter is so excited to organize the drawers.  I will line them tomorrow and allow her to put a few treasures in amongst the off season clothes.

I was also able to paint my coffee table that I am transforming into an ottoman before my Motherly duties commenced.  Thank you so much hubby for a day to myself.  It was much needed and I feel rejuvenated even though I did not take a nap.

My First Milk Paint Project

I have been obsessed with picking up furniture off the side of the road and making it something beautiful for our home.  I am extremely thrifty and love a project.  Hubby often rolls his eyes and asks, "don't you think you have enough projects?"  However, projects allow me to feel like I am contributing to the home.  It also gives me a sense of accomplishment outside of the washing of diapers, cleaning house and taking care of my lovely girls.

I love the shabby chic look and have been admiring all the milk painted furniture on Pinterest.   I have never used this before.  But I love the fact that there is no prep work involved.  I hate sanding before refinishing a project.  I also love that it is all natural.  I am often made fun of by my family for being a hippy.  That would be my inner hippy coming out.  If you are unfamilliar with milk paint here is a description from www.missmustardseedmilkpaint.com/about



"Milk Paint is an ancient all-natural paint containing basic ingredients including milk protein (casein), limestone, clay and natural pigments. When absorbed into the surface, Milk Paint will never chip or peel. It is suitable for both interior and exterior applications and is naturally mold resistant. Milk paint provides a completely breathable coating and is ideal for painting wood, plaster, drywall and a variety of other surfaces.  It is environmentally friendly, non-toxic and contains no VOCs.

With the Milk Paint Bonding Agent you can use Milk Paint on even more surfaces such as previously painted walls, varnished surfaces, ceramic tiles, metal, glass etc.  Without the bonding agent, Milk Paint will resist some prefinished or prepainted surfaces to achieve an authentic “chippy” look."



I was able to find a retailer of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint near by and grabbed myself Linen and Kitchen Scale.  I also invested in some of the Miss Mustard Seed antique wax.  See the colours here:

http://www.missmustardseedsmilkpaint.com/colors/

This piece was on the side of the road.  There was no major repair work.  It just had ugly wooden handles on it that needed to come off.  It was also extremely plain!  So I went to a local liquidator who sells cabinet pulls and some mouldings etc.  I picked up a dental moulding and a fancy applique to add to the top drawer.  I did not take a picture before the handles came off.  My dear father did all the work of chiseling off the old glue and handles.  He also helped me to glue and nail down the extra mouldings.  Here is a picture of the piece with the bling added:

I mixed the kitchen scale with some Ironstone to make a softer green.  I did not use the bonding agent as I wanted it to be chippy and rustic looking.   Next time I would paint the additions so that they Show up a little better when distressed.  I think this extra step would be well worth it.

I mixed enough paint to do two coats.  Again, I do not have any pictures of the coats of paint going on. But I found that it went on very well.  It was a little streaky until the second coat.  However, that is all part of the charm.  I then took a paint scrapper to the dresser lightly going over areas where the paint had lifted.  The paint did not lift on the drawers due to all the sanding required to remove the glue.  I just took some sand paper to it and the paint distressed relatively easily.  Here is a picture after two coats and the chipping/distressing.

The Miss Mustard Seed wax went on like butter!  It was really nice to work with and gave more antiquing colour than the Minwax antique wax.  I put on two thin coats.  When waxing, the thinner the better.

I then went to the local liquidator and found some beautiful pulls for the drawers.  I really wanted porcelain drop pulls.  But I could only find ones that were complimented with gold.  So my father once again used his handyman skills and spray painted the metal to resemble the other pulls I had chosen.  They look fabulous.  Here is the finished product:

Unfortunately it kind of blends with the carpet, which will be replaced in the near future.  However, I am so pleased with my very first milk painted project.  I will definitely be using it in the future.  Next project I will ensure to take more pictures and share every step of the way.