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Hand Painted Furniture

Before and Afters

Say hello to “Boxwood”

It’s now time to introduce the 12th and final color in my line of milk paint.  Say hello to “Boxwood.”     Here’s what the piece looked like before…     My inspiration for the color was a boxwood bush (obviously.) I love the rich, green color of the leaves…     …and it looks striking on a piece of furniture.  It’s a bold color, but very classic as well.     …and, I’m sure you noticed, the paint isn’t chipped or distressed at all.  I used the bonding agent on this piece for a super smooth finish.  I’ll post a video on how/when to use the bonding agent tomorrow. Until then, here’s a sneak peek of the 1840’s hutch I couldn’t resist…  

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Before and Afters

say hello to “Linen”

It’s time to introduce another one of my Milk Paint colors.  Whew!  Painting twelve dressers in all twelve of my colors has taken longer than I thought it would.  I want all of my pieces to be special, but especially these pieces that will act as the “online swatch” for each color.  After this piece, I only have one more left to do – “Boxwood.”  So, without further delay, here’s “Linen”…   Linen is a beautiful cream that’s not too yellow, but not bright white. My husband found this piece at a yard sale and bought it for me.  Awww….I know.  I picked a good guy.  The hardware was ill-fitting and all wrong for this piece.  I disliked the flimsy metal covers for the keyholes as well, so I plucked those off.  Other than the cosmetic issues, this piece was in nice condition.     The insides of the drawers

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Before and Afters

say hello to “grain sack”

I don’t know why I left this piece sitting in my basement for so long! It was finished a couple of weeks ago and I finally hauled it up today for a photo shoot.  I knew I would have fun with it and I did.  It’s definitely a favorite.  Say hello to the MMS Milk Paint color “Grain Sack”…    Here’s the piece before…      …and this piece gets better when you start opening it up…       I have a wee bit of a crush on this piece and the play of colors, chippiness and wood.   (The interior is painted in Shutter Gray, by the way.)  So, why did I call this color grain sack?   It may look white-ish, but it’s more of a neutral gray, like a nubby old European grain sack.             I not only love this color straight up,

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Before and Afters

Say Hello to Ironstone

I’m finally getting around to introducing another Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint color… …Ironstone…     What else would I call my white?  For this piece, I’m so glad I finally got a lot of chipping.  All white pieces aren’t really my style, so I was hoping for lots of chippiness, which I got,  and I left the top and drawers wood.   Here’s how the piece started… I sort of laughed when I showed my husband the finished dresser.  Most people would probaly consider it a “before” with the partially painted chippiness.  Oh well.  Those who get it, get it.     I was so fortunate to buy this piece with the gorgeous original glass knobs…     Oh, Milk Paint chippy goodness on turned legs.  Sigh.   I did make a video on getting the chippy look with Milk Paint and I just need to edit it to get it

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Before and Afters

Say hello to “Kitchen Scale”

Time for another reveal of the next Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint color – “Kitchen Scale”…   Here’s how this piece started…    Yeah, it’s hard to believe it’s the same piece, isn’t it? Here’s why I named the color Kitchen Scale…     The color isn’t exactly the same.  My aqua has more green in it, but this scale was my inspiration.     I love how this paint finish turned out.  It only chipped in a few small places, but the entire finish had this wonderful texture.  You can see it if you look closely…     I decided to jazz up the dresser with some branches and blossoms.  I’ve enjoyed the decorative painting I’ve done lately and it seemed fitting for this piece.  It’s a very petite dresser, so it’s perfect for a little girl’s room or guest room.   It chipped just a little bit around one

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Before and Afters

Say hello to “Flow Blue”

It’s time for another reveal of one of my Milk Paint colors. Here’s Flow Blue…   This is how the piece looked before I painted it..   ..and this is how it looked with two coats of paint, some detail painting and before I refinished the top.  This is the part where I was not in love with it and was ready to start all over…     …but then I refinished the top and sanded the finish to soften it…   …and it all worked out.  (Do you know that’s pretty common for me?  There’s almost always a moment of doubt or a time when I think the piece looks terrible, but I press through and it always seems to work out.)   The name of the color come from the technique used in the 1800’s – early 1900’s to transfer blue patterns onto pottery.  Flow Blue dishes have

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Before and Afters

Say hello to “Typewriter”

What else would I call the black in my milk paint line?  I thought about “fan”, but that didn’t work for me, so I went with Typewriter, one of my other favorite vintage decorating elements. Introducing this color was tricky for me because I don’t usually paint pieces entirely black.  It looks too heavy to me and I think you lose a lot of the detail of the piece.  So, I decided to leave the drawers wood, paint the body black and add a little decorative painting to the front.   Here’s how the dresser started…   Those stripes are contact paper.  I was about to rip them to shreds (figuratively) for being so ugly, but then I realized it was really pretty clever.  They applied a burled-looking contact paper in strips to look like inlay.  Ugly, but the idea is clever.  Very thrifty, too.  I pealed off the contact

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Before and Afters

Say Hello to “Lucketts Green”

Happy 4th of July to everyone!  We just finished our hamburgers and corn and I’ll partake of some black cherry ice cream once the boys go to bed.  This morning, though, I had some time in the workshop to complete a couple of dressers to introduce two more of my milk paint colors and to get the pieces ready to take to Lucketts tomorrow.  So, without further delay, say hello to Lucketts Green…   Here’s the dresser before…     So, why is it called Lucketts Green?  Well, if you’ve ever been to Lucketts, you would know immediately why I call it that.  For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, this is why… It’s very similar to the color of the shingles on the exterior of The Lucketts Store.   And for those of you who don’t know, it’s one of my favorite places on earth and I am privileged to be a

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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