Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint Archives | Page 31 of 42

Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint

Before and Afters

Painting the Dining Chairs

I have been looking for a sturdy pair of oval back chairs to use in my dining room for years. They were always too expensive or too rickety for practical, regular use. So, I was ready to buy some from Restoration Hardware, but the day I was planning to press the “purchase” button, I found a set of four chairs on Craig’s List. Woohoo!! You can read the full story HERE. They were perfect, but they were maroon. Not being able to stomach stripping four caned chairs, I took them to have them professionally stripped, which cost $50/chair and saved me hours and hours. I’ve had them in their stripped, raw state for a few months now and today I started to finish them. These chairs were my inspiration… (photo source) I really liked the chairs raw, but they were a little rough and some of the old white and

November 5, 2013 58 Comments

Before and Afters

Typewriter Vanity/Desk Reveal

This is how the piece looked when it came into my possession… Typewriter MMSMP is our color of the month for October, so I thought it was good timing to use it on this piece. I generally don’t paint pieces all black, but I knew bleed through would be an issue and nothing hides that better than black. Here’s how the piece looked when I last showed it to you… …and here’s how it looks now that it’s finished. I painted it in one coat of Typewriter without the Bonding Agent added. The piece was sanded to give the surface tooth, though, so adhesion wasn’t an issue. I allowed it to dry and distressed it pretty heavily with 80 grit sand paper. I’ve always loved the look of warm wood against black paint. The top was finished in Minwax Dark Walnut stain and the entire piece coated

October 16, 2013 70 Comments

Before and Afters

Apron Strings Dresser Reveal

When I last showed the dresser painted in MMSMP Apron Strings, it looked like this… …and this is how it started out… …and here is how it looks now… First off the color looks a little bit more raspberry than coral on this piece, but I love how it turned out. It’s spunky, vibrant and fun. I think most of you know, but the cherry blossom design is hand painted, not a stencil. See the crackling in the top right corner? That’s just some paint stripper that wasn’t totally washed off. I love the look and may have to do it on purpose at some point! I originally tried clear glass knobs, and those looked fine, but I tried these amber ones I picked up from Target on clearance and they brought it to a new level. They were perfect. It really is amazing how much distressing a piece and

October 16, 2013 40 Comments

Furniture Makeovers

Apron Strings Dresser Preview…

Here’s how this dresser started…or pretty close to it. I sanded it, stripped the top and removed the vertical trim pieces on the bottom two drawers. One was loose anyway and they bugged me a little. I painted it in two coats of MMSMP Apron Strings (one of the new colors coming out in November) without any Bonding Agent added. Sanding really does a world of good with helping Milk Paint stick. As you can see, the finish still looks a little uneven. That’s okay. That variation is normal with Milk Paint and it will look lovely once it’s finished. I stained the top with Dark Walnut stain by Minwax… …and decided to do some decorative painting. When I have a large, flat surface and, in this case, a strong color I want to break up, I just can’t help but grab a brush. I immediately visualized this piece with

October 15, 2013 47 Comments

Furniture Makeovers

Furniture Wax vs. Hemp Oil

I have received a bunch of questions lately about Furniture Wax and Hemp Oil, the difference between the two and how I choose which one to use, so I thought it was time to write a post about it. Let’s dive right in. Furniture Wax Why I started using it… I read an article about finishing painted furniture with wax a few years ago, so I went to the hardware store and bought a can of Johnson’s Paste Wax. That was really the only wax I was familiar with, so I started using it on some of my painted and stained pieces. I had a few problems with it. It was very stinky and the consistency made it difficult to move well on a piece of furniture. I also couldn’t get it into fine nooks and crannies of pieces. So, I started looking for other types of wax and found

October 14, 2013 12 Comments

Hand Painted Furniture

hemp oil gallery (550×275)

October 13, 2013 73 Comments

Decorating

Sanding, staining, mixing & flooding

I had great plans for today. I was going to get two furniture pieces finished and fit in e-mail and some photo shoots as paint dried. The day was going as planned until about noon. It’s been raining here for two full days. Hard. We’ve had a little bit of water seeping into our basement, just because the water table is so high. This is normal, though, and the water is mostly corralled into channels with the help of some strategically placed towels. I was busy oiling one of the shoe racks I bought and noticed some water seeping beyond the towels. I figured they were sopped, so I exchanged them for dry towels and put them on the spin cycle in the washer. The new towels were soaked in minutes and I realized there was a big problem. I could hear water splashing. It was pouring in under the

October 12, 2013 30 Comments

Before and Afters

Say Hello to “Trophy”

The dresser with attitude is finally finished and photographed! As a recap – this is what it looked like before… …this is what it looked like during (aka – the ugly stage)… …and here she is all finished! You can read about how I dealt with the bleed through HERE and the striping technique HERE. And if you’re the sort who is still aghast at me painting a piece of wood furniture, you can read my thoughts on the subject HERE. This piece is a great example of how you never know what to expect when you work on a piece of furniture. Sometimes everything goes as planned and sometimes it doesn’t. This piece gave me lots of attitude and pushed me into the design she ended up with. I love all of her imperfections and quirks…a declaration to the world that she was painted by hand, not a machine

October 9, 2013 62 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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