Its me again!! I just cant keep up with blogging lately – tons of things to post about but just not enough hours in the day! I hope you follow me on facebook – its much easier to post over there and i normally check in and post a couple times throughout the day.
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I picked up the most amazing matching set a couple months ago! I got both the buffet and the hutch. At 1st my plans were to paint and sell the buffet and keep the hutch for the basement, but once i got the buffet home i told my husband i just couldn’t get rid of it! So i made room for it in my family room and its perfect :)
As soon as i posted a before pic on facebook, i got tons of crap for saying i was going to paint it. But, obviously i love painted furniture and thats what needed to happen to it to make it work in my house. The before was ok, definitely not my style and would be much to heavy and fancy to go with my decor. Even though i paint almost everyday, im still amazed what some paint can do!
I decided to paint this piece with Sweet Pickins Milk Paint in “Window Pane” – Window Pane is my favorite white, it has just a touch of gray in it. I wasn’t going for a chippy look on this one and i wanted the paint to adhere, so i did use the Extra Bond with the milk paint to get good adhesion. To see how and why the Extra Bond is used, go here.
This piece did have a fair amount of shine, kinda hard to tell in the pics. Without the Extra Bond it would have been too chippy for the look that i was going for.
Wanna know what i did to prep this piece for paint? Nothing – i did absolutely nothing besides take out the drawers and then remove the cabinet doors and hardware so i didn’t paint the hinges. The piece was really clean and in great shape so it didn’t need anything. Thats the beauty of milk paint – no prep needed :) It is recommended to clean the piece prior to painting and sometimes i do – this piece just didn’t need it.
(Sorry that’s such a blurry pic up above – not sure what happened there)
Normally with white milk paint over a darker surface it takes 3-4 coats to get good coverage. But, i wasn’t necessarily going for a full coverage painted look, so i only did 2 coats. I was actually surprised that it only took 2 coats to get the look i wanted. I knew when it was distressed, the not perfect paint job would give me the look i was after.
You can tell in the pic above, that it kinda almost has a “washed” look in some areas – that’s what i was after, i was not going for perfectly painted. Also, the carvings in this piece were so deep, that i didn’t have to do anything special to not get paint into those. I just dipped my brush in the paint, made sure to get the majority of the paint brushed off into my cup and then just did lighter brush strokes over the carved spots until i built up the paint enough in those areas without the paint pooling into the carvings.
It really looks like i had already glazed or dark waxed the piece in this pic, but its just that i didn’t get any paint into those amazing carvings. I also think thats the beauty of milk paint – you dont have to paint it so neatly and perfectly, in the end when you distress and do your final sanding, all those brush strokes disappear and it all just comes together.
After the piece was painted with 2 coats of white, i took my orbital sander to it and distressed all the flat spots that i could (i used a fine grit paper). I always use my orbital sander when i can – it just makes everything go so much quicker. For the details and curved parts, such as on the legs, i used my sanding block.
Since i used the Extra Bond on this piece, i didnt really get much chipping and had to use my sander to get the distressed look i wanted. I had a few spots chip here and there, but not too much. I do love when milk paint chips though :) As the paint is drying, it will resist whatever is on the piece and it wont adhere. It will cause the paint to flake and you just need to get those flakes off.
You can see in the pic above that i got some chipping on the legs. I just used a sanding block to remove those chips and smooth out the rest of the paint that was left. You can also see here, that my paint didnt get into those deep carvings – i just let my brush go right over top of them.
After painting the entire piece, i was torn on whether or not to paint or stain the top. If i were to paint this piece to sell, i definitely would have stained the top – it looked so pretty with all the carvings and really made them stand out. But, i think a stained top, especially on this piece since its so ornate, really made it look to “fancy” for my space and i was going for a casual look.
In the end, i decided to paint the top and im really happy i did.
After i distressed with my orbital sander, i went over the entire thing with a fine sanding block just to make sure it was completely smooth everywhere and that all paint flakes had come off – i didnt spend a lot of time on this since milk paint normally sands really easy. On this entire piece, even with all the details, it maybe took me 10 minutes.
I really liked how the piece looked with the clean white and all the detailed dark carvings, it didnt need any dark wax or glaze to highlight them. Dark wax also really changes the color of whites, and i definitely didnt want to change the color in any way so i was done. Normally after painting and distressing, you would want to topcoat milk paint with something to protect the finish. Milk paint is very porous and may be hard to keep clean if its not protected. But, i really liked the flat chalky look of the paint and didnt feel like i needed to top coat it with anything. And because its so distressed, i dont think any more bumps or dirt will affect the look of it :) Plus, its not in a high traffic area of our home and will rarely ever be touched.
After it was all done i brought the piece in my family room. We actually just took out the TV from this spot and i needed to fill it with something – so this worked out perfect. And arent those old doors AMAZING!! I got those just a couple weeks ago and knew they would be perfect to fill up the space above it. I also updated some of the hardware with some painted wooden knobs that matched the original paint on the windows – perfection!!
Aren’t those carvings and appliques amazing!!!
I have to admit, when i finished up this piece i was a little worried that i may have been too fancy and ornate for my casual space. But i think the solid white with the distressing and painted knobs along with the super chippy green windows above it, really gave it a casual look. I’m really happy with how this piece turned out :)
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I also LOVE not having a TV in our upstairs family room – the room is staying so clean!! We just finished up the basement and have our everyday family room down there now – that space has come a long way, cant wait to show you!! We have so much to catch up on! I feel like ive completely lost touch with the whole blogging world and have years of blogging and tutorials to do – i hope someone is still reading this thing!! Let me know if your still out there and what you think of my fab new buffet :)