MMS Milk Paint Custom Color Mix Inspired Trumeau Mirror

Happy Monday! Hope you enjoyed your long weekend! It was a very relaxing one over here! Yesterday we had a family barbeque, the girls had a couple of friends over, Josh got to watch a little football, and I finally finished my painting project! This is my MMS Milk Paint Custom Color Mix Shabby Chic Inspired Trumeau Mirror.

When my husband started his custom wood working business about eight years ago, I had no idea how far it would take us, but his creativity, he's a genius with numbers, loves to work with tools, and is very hard working and dedicated, has really paid off. One of the first pieces he made for our home, was a mirror. Back then he was just learning the ropes with a neighbor, who had already established his business and was teaching my husband a few lessons. This mirror was one of them, and it hung in our living room at our old house. When we moved to our rental, it got stored away, until just recently when we moved into our new house. I was searching for something and it caught my attention, because it deserved to be hung, it also needed an updated look.

I've been wanting to work with Milk paint, and to find a starting project, this seemed like it would be the perfect one. What I originally was looking for was the palest blush. If you are one of the ten who follow my blog, then you might remember the conversation my husband and I had about mixing milk paint, I thought it was cute. One of the antique stores in Tempe, carries Miss Mustard Seed Milk paint, so I picked up a few samples, Arabesque, which is a dusty rose color, Tricycle, which truly is red, and Ironstone, which as the name suggests, looks like Ironstone.

The custom color I ended up with was 8 parts Ironstone to 1 part Tricycle. It looked like Strawberry Milk shake. I sanded the mirror down to remove the lacquer my husband put on, and he put it on pretty thick. After I painted the first coat of light pink, let it dry completely, and then I painted Ironstone over top, to create a layer that when I lightly distressed it, the blush would show through.

And I began to find the irony in painting this mirror, that the mirror had plans of it's own, because the bottom and the right side would paint fine for me, and the top and left side, which was ok, it chipped, and although that was the end result I was looking for, the sides didn't match up equally, so I roughed it up a little more, and repeated the process over again, this time the opposite sides were fine, but the opposed sides would become more chippy, and not match. Sand and repeat, sand and repeat, by this time, I had put 8 layers on, and by the time I got all sides to match up, the end result I thought ended up really cool looking.

Same thing with Antique wood mirror applique my husband custom cut out for me from scrap pieces of wood at his shop, I painted and repainted 4 layers, trying to match the shade of the custom milk paint of the mirror, when my husband suggested to either make it lighter or darker to stand out. When I distressed the applique, and then painted the distressed areas with gold acrylic paint. Finally I coated both the mirror and the applique with a water based polyurethane.

I wanted to hang it in our Master bedroom, but it wasn't quite the blush color I was looking for. It looks perfectly in my younger daughters Lindsay's room.

As I am searching the internet, the next mirror, I would like my husband to make, and I'll either stain it or paint it, but it would be something like this Trumeau mirror .

It was a fun learning experience, and I found working with milk paint very easy. The chipping I found was due to three different possibilities, there were areas of lacquer, I didn't quite get all removed, two the humidity from the monsoons we are having, or three, the day was pretty hot, and the milk paint got too dry too fast!

Have you worked with milk paint before? 

This is always my favorite question,

What is your favorite color?

I have one more paint project that I am working on, not furniture, but a Fall centerpiece for an upcoming post!

Have an amazing week!

Until next time!

xo,

DIY Antinque Candlesticks

The other day my husband and I were out shopping, and out of the corner of my eye, I spied a pair of unfinished pine candlesticks, and they were on sale for $4 each. Oh, I scooped them right up. Another obsession of mine are, candles. When we lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I must have owned close to a hundred of them. Votives, pillars, candlesticks in every color and scent imaginable. The best part about this was they were a blank canvas, and I could do what ever I wanted with them. My original idea was to simply white wash them with the extra Miss Mustard Milk paint in Ironstone, I had left from my painting project {to be revealed soon}.

Then on our recent trip up North, we had some time to burn, so it was my son that suggested we stop in World Market. First place I always head to is the bath and beauty section to put  try on some lotion, and check out their candles. That's when these beautiful antique looking candles caught my attention. They were the same size as the wooden ones I bought. I checked the price and they were, Can you believe this they were $20 each!

Wow! I thought to myself, I can do the same with my candlesticks,

 I already had the milk paint. I just needed to buy some antique wax.

All I did, was paint  the candlesticks with two coats of Miss Mustard Seed Milk paint in Ironstone. By the way, I found working with Milk Paint very easy! 

Distressed them with a medium grit sandpaper. Using a slightly damp cloth, I gently applied small areas of Antique wax where I wanted the worn areas of the candlestick showed. Then with the same slightly damp cloth, I buffed the wax around it.

I loved how they turned out. I seriously can not wait to use them to decorate for Fall!

Until next time,

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A Tale of Two Paint Projects: Part 1

Happy Day before Friday! How has your week been? It sure has been a real busy back to school week around here! Lindsay and Katelyn are all settled in their classes. Lindsay even found a friend from her old school in Mesa, that just moved out here. Katelyn is in a new 20+1 program, where there are only 20 students to a class. The classes are considered blended learning, since they are integrating the use of chrome books. So far she loves it! Joshua, we have his had to change his schedule several times, and hopefully today will be the last day for changes. It's been much more peaceful around here, but as much as I like the quiet, I do miss them, their laughter and the sound of their voices.

Growing up, we lived on a huge corner lot. In the back yard, my mom, not only had her patio for her flowers and shrubs, but 2 plum trees, an apple tree, and a very nice size vegetable garden in the back, for corn, tomatoes, spinach, and melons. She spent hours digging in the dirt, and we enjoyed the fresh fruits and vegetables that all her hard work provided for us. I remember, I must have been about 7 or 8, and I asked her one day, why she spent so much time digging in the dirt, and she told me, gardening was like therapy for her.

That's how painting has been for me the last couple of days. Not to mention how fun is it to get paint everywhere, I mean everywhere, in my hair, 3 colors of paint on my elbow and fingers. I found some on my cell phone case. Oh my, I was having a blast. It was just the kind of fun break I've needed from this busy week!

Tale 1: The IKEA Rast Dresser Hack that has been in the works, since the beginning of the year.

Two weekends, ago, I took Katelyn to Lowe's to pick out a paint. The basic dresser I painted white, and will lacquer it clear. For the drawers, she wanted an Orange color. You know I tried to talk her out of it, but she was insistent that she wanted orange, and not just any color orange, she wanted Sunny Orange, like Tang colored orange or even Halloween color orange.

For those of you that are looking forward to Fall, this post will remind you of the changing of leaves, Fiery Orange. I had initially picked up a lightly coastal / tropical color, Valspar's Coral Reef. She said it was not dark enough. So she finally chose, Valspar's Orange Pecan. It's looking like Fall, Y'all!!

I was wanting to finish Katelyn's dresser before she went back to school, but with the monsoon we had last weekend, set me back a little. We have managed to get it painted and I started stenciling the drawers.Now please don't laugh at my stenciling job. For one, I am pretty craft challenged to begin with, and I need to go back and touch it up. There is still more stenciling to do, and I still can not find the darn wooden knobs that came with it, I have plans for those. Look for an updated post coming soon.

Tale 2: Trash to Treasure, special project with the Hubby

Just a recap, my husband is a custom wood worker, and when he started his business he made something for me, that I've been storing, until we moved into our new house. I was looking at it and I wanted something softer, more romantic, and French. I had him cut out fleur-de-lis embellishments from scrap pieces of wood around his shop, and I found one Thriftique store in Tempe that sells Miss Mustard Seed milk paint. I bought three samples; Ironstone, Tricycle, and Arabesque.

I sampled the Arabesque, and it was more of a dusty, rose pink, and when it dried, it now is this beautiful neutral pink/tan color! Today, I mixed together 8parts of Ironstone to 1part Tricycle, and just some FYI, Tricycle is very red. The color combination reminded me of a Strawberry Milkshake.

 As the milk paint dried, it became more like a blush whitewash, which is what I was looking for. I love how the milk paint cracks and crazes, giving the wood that chippy antinque look.

This weekend, at one of the wood shops my husband is a loyal customer too, is having a Milk Painting workshop, that I'm planning on going to, so I am really looking forward to that! This is where I say, look for an updated post coming soon.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

Until next time!

xo,

 

A Week in CASL photos: Back to School

Happy Monday! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend! It's Back to School day, and it wouldn't be an official Back to School without a few surprises, and I'm happy to say, that my children made it off to school, with only a couple of hitches. My son's bus, last year it was at 6:40am this year it's 6:30am, my son and I disagreed on the time, and I said I would admit I was wrong if it came at 6:40am. Was I wrong?? No, BUT the bus driver kept driving, he completely missed his stop, so all the kids that were waiting for the bus ran home, and I ended up taking my son.

My 7th grader starts school at 9am this year, and wanted me to take her. In the announcements on the school's website, it said school started at 8:30am. WHAT, my 4th grader starts at 8:30am, How am I supposed to be in two places at once????
I really wanted to help my 7th grader on the first day to find all her classes. She will take the bus tomorrow, so it won't be an issue, but on the first day I just took her early, and then dropped my 4th grader off almost as the bell rang. I am not one who likes to be running late, I like to be 10-15 minutes early, just in case. I am excited to find out and hear all about their first days and see how everything went!

Josh's first class is an engineering and architectural class, his counselor thought he'd enjoy it. It's funny, because he really was looking forward to having the culinary class. I might end up switching him, so we'll see. Lindsay's pic didn't turn out that good, so I'm going to try again later and update.


What I like about doing a Photo365, is that I get to share with you a peek into what my week has been like, and possibly a sneak peek to what next week will bring. I've tried 365 Photo or Daily photo memes several times before, and surprisingly, I am getting farther posting my photos once a week, instead of once a day. It makes a big difference, and it's really nice to look back and see a slice of my day!

Trash- These used to be pieces of left over wood scraps, that I had my husband make these carved fleur de lis. 

Words- Since being not only a Monday and the first day of  School, and I am on my 3rd or 4th cup of coffee today! 

via

Fiction- I found this old book up at my Grandmother's. Her mother, who I never met gave it to her! There are a couple of my favorite stories and movies.

I bought it- Here is one of the Miss Mustard Seed milk paint colors I bought over the weekend!

This one is 'Arabesque'. It is a warm and soft neutral pink color. It's not as feminine pink as I was looking for. The other two colors are 'Ironstone' and 'Tricycle'. Updates to come soon.

 

Are you on Instagram? You really should be!! 

You can follow me here on Instagram! 

   I recently started following a photo a day prompt on #fmsphotoaday.

 Let me know if you decide to join in the fun!

Here's to a great first week back to school!

Until next time!

 

xo,