Painting for a Purpose [And Milk Paint!]

I was super excited when a friend of the family asked if I wanted to donate one of my pieces to a silent auction for a Gala that she helps organize. It’s for the Carol M. Baldwin Gala which supports the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund. Aside from the fact that Carol Baldwin is the mother of the amazingly talented Baldwin brothers, she is also a courageous breast cancer survivor. After undergoing a double mastectomy, and beating her cancer, she began this fund to help raise the money needed to help researchers find the cause, prevention and treatment of breast cancer. She’s a native of Syracuse, NY, where her sons visit her often and have even been spotted in my little hometown 20 minutes away. 🙂 So I jumped at this opportunity to help support such a great cause and try something new: milk paint!

This is the brother table of my previous project that you can see here if you missed it. It only has one drawer and is slightly smaller. I definitely have mixed feelings about milk paint, and I’m sure most of it has to do with the fact that it was my first time using it and I really had no idea what I was doing. I am pretty in love with the end result though!

Here’s what it looked like before:

So to start out, I watched some of Miss Mustard Seed’s video tutorials to get an idea of how this stuff works. The store I bought the paint at recommended sanding first, but MMS said it wasn’t necessary if you’re using the bonding agent (which I was). I mixed that in with my paint and stirred it all up. I found the consistency to be quite watery, and ended up adding more powder. Much more. Probably too much. Oops.

I felt like I couldn’t get it to a smooth consistency but started painting anyway to see how it looked. You could definitely see some specs in it, but I figured I would just sand them out later. Not gonna lie, I was a little concerned after the first coat. It looked like a HOT MESS. (More so than you can see in this picture). :-p

The trickiest part for me was the legs, since there are so many grooves and small places to get into. I flipped the table upside down for the second and third coats, and painted them first and then once they dried, flipped the table back over and painted the rest. I think my main problem was that I was using too large of a brush for the legs and it was harder to control the splatter of the paint since it’s so thin to begin with.

I want to take a second to talk about this amazing product I discovered, that was SO useful with this project. Who’s a Shark Tank fan? If you’re not, you should be. It’s a great show that helps small businesses get deals with some pretty impressive investors like Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner. My favorite shark is Robert Herjavec. Anywho, the hubs and I love watching this show together and a couple months ago I made my very first Shark Tank purchase! The guys behind the The Paint Brush Cover are genius. I mean, how did something like this not exist before? And for only $4.99 a pop?! I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t buy more than one.

I painted my first coat of milk paint and then placed my brush in the cover. It was about a week later that I got around to my second coat and opened up the case to find a very wet and soft brush. This thing is seriously amazing! You should go buy one. Or ten.

Ok so after I got 3 coats on, I was feeling a bit better. Although the texture was a bit rough, I was ok with that since you really couldn’t see it. I used some fine grit sandpaper to distress all the edges and smooth everything out.

I ended up buying some antiquing wax and I’m so glad I did. I was nervous about it when I first saw Annie Sloan’s but figured I’d give this a shot since it comes in a much smaller container. I used my Annie Sloan wax brush and applied it all over the piece, wiping off as I went, and buffing later. I love how it darkens color and really gets into the wood, especially in the distressed areas.

When I’m buying a new product, I always seem to get roped into buying the whole kit and caboodle. Anyone else? At least this haul was a lot cheaper than my Annie Sloan one 🙂 Naturally, I bought some hemp oil, because I was so impressed with the samples I saw at the store. They were SO smooth and I just loved the finish it gave the wood. I used a rag to apply it in a circular motion and per the directions, after a half hour, wiped off the excess. I repeated the process after 24 hours on the top only.

I think this is the first project that I’ve actually kept the original hardware and not replaced it with something new. I love the shape of the pulls and they go so well with the color and antiqued look of the table.

Who’s ready for some beauty shots?!

I definitely want to use milk paint again, and I’ll be a little more prepared the next time! I think this was a great first experience though and I’m glad it turned out so well. After all, there might be some celeb eyes on it 🙂

I’m so excited to donate this for the silent auction. Hoping it raises some big bucks for an amazing cause and finds a great new home!