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,
It turned out really cute! I haven't used that paint yet, so I have no idea what my favorite color would be, but I like the one you mixed :)
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