Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint Archives | Page 2 of 42

Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint

All Things Home

Furniture Dilemmas | Connie’s Queen Anne Highboy

Let’s talk about furniture, shall we? That seems like a welcome diversion! Today, I’m going to share the step-by-step how-to for painting and finishing a piece like Connie’s Queen Anne highboy…. Here is how it looks in the context of her room… Isn’t that a lovely space? It reminds me a lot of my Opa’s house. And I mean that in a good way, not in a way like it looks like an “old person’s” house! It looks welcoming and traditional, but tasteful and stylish. It’s collected and comfortable. I think it also has something to do with the fact that they had a similar rug and an almost identical gooseneck rocker. Anyway, I love her room! The dresser in the corner was a piece handed along to her and she feels like it’s a little dark in the room and just another heavy wood piece next to that

March 20, 2020 48 Comments

a slice of life

milk paint makeovers in barga

The main reason for my trip to Europe was teaching at a creative retreat in Barga. For one of our creative sessions, we painted an antique chest from the Cordati house where we had our workshop space. We did this last year and it was a ton of fun and a great success. Not everyone in our group this year was a furniture painter, but it was a great creative exercise for everyone. It was a sweet spot for some and way out of their comfort zone for others. As a group, we decided to take inspiration from the painted panels on the doors in the room. The designs are beautiful and they have always caught my eye, so I was excited to paint a piece of furniture using those as inspiration. I took a few minutes to sketch some elements in my sketchbook and to test out swatches of

October 10, 2019 16 Comments

All Things Home

Hand Painted Mora Dresser | Part 2

In case you missed part one of this dresser makeover, you can check it out HERE. At the end of yesterday’s post, I said I would show how the dresser turned out as well as how I distressed and finished it, so this post is fulfilling that promise. And here it is… I did a light distressing with 120 grit sandpaper, just to “knock down the newness” of the fresh paint. I also wanted to soften the decorative painting. You can see how I did it in the video… I also replaced the broken caster, added new glass knobs, and finished the piece in MMSMP’s Hemp Oil… This piece still followed my tradition of scrolly decorative painting on drawer fronts, but I changed it up a bit by adding the folk art animals as well as some different strokes. I love the rabbit and I think I need to play

July 23, 2019 50 Comments

All Things Home

Hand Painted Mora Dresser | Part 1

Last week, I finally got around to painting a dresser that’s been hanging out in my garage since October! I put it off originally because the winter weather set in, but then this spring has been busy and it’s been out of sight, out of mind. Jeff cleaned out the garage a few weeks ago and I promised I would paint the dresser and get it out of there. Well, I finally did and I made a video of the process. So, here is how the dresser started… It’s a pretty little piece, but the finish was a bit dinged up. A part of me wanted to sand it all down and do some kind of a whitewash or bleach the wood or something, but a reader of me asked if I would paint it specifically for her. Since I was just going to sell it, anyway, I was happy

July 22, 2019 23 Comments

Furniture Makeovers

Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint turns 7

On April 27, 2012, I announced to the world (well, to my blog readers), that I would be launching my very own line of milk paint. That makes this Saturday, April 27, 2019, the official 7th birthday of the Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint line! And we’re celebrating with a walk down memory lane and presents! We’re running giveaways on the MMSMP Instagram and MMSMP Facebook pages and we’re running a giveaway on this post, too! When I introduced the line in that post, I introduced it as my “pie-in-the-sky-dream-come-true”. Having my own line seemed so outrageous and out of reach. But, I had this idea of giving milk paint, a paint I had come to love for furniture, a fresh face. It needed to be freed from the paper bags, colonial color palette, and the dusty shelves of antique malls. It’s an amazing and unique product and someone needed

April 26, 2019 590 Comments

All Things Home

farmhouse white dresser makeover

While at Junk Bonanza, we decided it would be fun to shop for a piece, paint and finish it in Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint products, and then offer it up as a giveaway. We did it last year and it went so well that it was worth an encore. So, Wednesday evening, after our booth was set up, I wandered around looking for a good candidate to paint. I found a few pieces that were nice and within my $150 budget, but I decided to keep looking. And I was glad I waited when I spotted this gorgeous late 1800’s dresser with unique hardware and trim for $125… I bought it from The Tinker’s Ware. There were actually several pieces in that booth that were good candidates to paint, but this one was the one and my heart was set on it. We settled up and moved it upstairs

April 17, 2019 38 Comments

All Things Home

milk-painted washstands reveal

I told you I was going to reveal these on Thursday, but I ended up reminiscing about my 41 years on this earth! I loved reading your comments on that post and you brought back some memories of things I forgot from my childhood. Thank you also for all of the birthday wishes. My DMs on Instagram blew up with all of the messages and it gave me the warm and fuzzies. I’m sure no one was holding their breath for the reveal of these, but sorry to make you wait all the same! And here is how they turned out… They were painted in MMS Milk Paint in a custom mix. You can find that recipe HERE. I decided to replace the ring pulls, which were most likely not original to the pieces, with glass knobs. They seemed to work better with the soft blue paint color and the

April 8, 2019 28 Comments

All Things Home

mixing a custom color & fixing too much chipping

The first thing I have to say about painting these two antique washstands is that I didn’t follow my own advice. But, before we get into that, let me show you how the pieces looked before… I painted these pieces in MMS Milk Paint in Linen a few years ago for our master bedroom in PA. They were the perfect size for that long and narrow room, but they looked dinky against in our new home’s higher ceilings. I knew I was going to sell them when I found replacements for them. As I was working on the guest room, I found two dressers to flank the bed and that meant I needed to get this pair ready to sell. I could’ve sold them as-is, but some of the paint rubbed off during the move and I felt like they could use some freshening up. Chris, my Junk Bonanza booth-mate,

April 4, 2019 18 Comments

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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