Milk Paint: Love it.

When my grandmother passed away last fall she left me 2 night stands. I think the shape is really neat and I love that they have removable glass tops for easy cleaning.  The dark wood didn't really match any of my other furniture so I have been planning to re-paint them for some time.  I saw this great paint called Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and thought I'd give it a try.  It's non-toxic, comes in powder form and you mix it with water. It creates a chippy look when painted with out a bonding agent, or smooth with the bonding solvent.  I opted for chippy.  I love me some chipped up paint.  I got the furniture wax to go over and seal it.  I must say I do really love the color.  It's called Grain Sack.

First: I took some sand paper and lightly gave them a quick "rough up" to get some of the varnish off and to really give the paint something to grab on to. 

Original wood.  

 

 

 Second: I took a paper towel, dampened with warm water and wiped them off.  Yuck. Varnish, wood. Dirt. 

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Next I mixed up the paint: The recommended ratio is 1:1.5 Paint to water.  The exception is the lighter colors where you should use 1:1.25. I mixed up a cup of powder and 1.25 cups warm water. Stir 3-5 minutes.  

 

It's considerably thinner then regular latex paint.

I did the first coat on Saturday night around 8pm just as the sun was going down.  

Looked kind of grey with the dark wood peeking through.

The next day (after Easter brunch of course) I did the second coat.

Supa-fab.  

 

Then after the paint dried (it only takes about 30 minutes) it started to get "chippy".  I ran my hand along it and flakes came off.  Then I use the furniture wax and gave it 2 thin coats.  

The end result:

My only issue is that you clearly cannot control how much/where the paint chips. (Hence the big ol' chip on the front)