Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in Portugal

 

About a year ago, one of my first customers to purchase Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint from my website was a lady called Ruth, at the time she was living in London.  Ruth relocated to Portugal a couple of months later.  I'm pleased to say that she loved the Milk Paint, and within a short space of time was putting in orders for lots more packets of Milk Paint - in particular Flow Blue & Mustard Seed Yellow, Ruth told me she was renovating a cottage in Portugal and was painting her kitchen cabinets in the Mustard Seed Yellow and  painting a large wardrobe in the Flow Blue, she also mentioned that since moving to Portugal she would also be setting up a furniture restoration business.

 

I was so pleased to receive an email a couple of weeks ago from Ruth with photos of her renovated kitchen and bedroom (above) and the exciting news that they were 'going live' with their Furniture Restoration Business website - their business is called 'Atelier Authentico' I absolutely love the website and I have shared some photos below of the restoration projects they have for sale which have been finished with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint.  I can't tell you how delighted I am - firstly to see the photos of her personal projects and secondly that Ruth will be using MMS Milk Paint as a regular feature with her new business projects (pics below) - another validation of just how versatile and fabulous Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint is! It warms my heart to see Ruth's restored pieces and hear such exciting news about her new business in Portugal. - Thank you Ruth.

You can follow Ruth & her amazing business Atelier Authentico on her website/blog, and social media platforms on the following links:
Website http://www.atelierautentico.pt/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/atelierautentico
Pinterest  http://www.pinterest.com/autenticopt
Instagram http://instagram.com/atelierautentico
Bye for now
CJ

Milk Paint Christmas Signs

Laura - my daughter and I have been painting Christmas signs for a craft fair tomorrow at Tulleys Farm I am  going along and teaming up with John & Trixie from Lovingly Made. I made use of lots of old 'off-cuts' of timber I had - I used Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint (of course) to paint them, and then found some 'Christmassy' graphics to use on the overhead projector so Laura could work her magic!

I used Ironstone as a base coat - rubbed my wax puck around the edges and then a couple of coats of Typewriter for this one, I did a couple of others the other way around, using Typewriter as the base coat and ironstone on top, I also did a couple of red ones using Tricycle, but they were still in progress when I took the photos!  They were all finished with Hemp Oil, and a light coat of MMS Antiquing Wax.

 Laura then worked her magic using the overhead projector method.

and...here they are - I love the little Seasons Compliments one - that graphic came from the Graphics Fairy.

We decided that perhaps we may start making some of these a little earlier next year, and we can have some fun doing them, it's all been a bit of a mad rush this week! hence the poor photos!
Bye for now
CJ

Artissimo - One Colour 2 Finishes

I couldn't wait to get my hands on 'Artissimo' - I just loved the look of this colour - so different, a really deep midnight blue sort of navy blue - I decided to paint 2 pieces, one which I would use the Bonding Agent, and the other I would let 'do its own thing'.

 

This little 2 drawer chest was really quite sturdy, although the wood is not all solid wood and I did detect some veneer when I started to gently sand the top, in fact quite a lot of veneer, so as is usual for me - my visualization of what I'm going to create ends up totally nothing like it!

I had designs on sanding & staining the top, but there was a really nasty ring stain, which would not sand off

so I resorted to painting the top as well.

Now this stain started to cause me problems - as it kept on coming through the paint even with the bonding agent mixed into the first coat, after I had given it 2 coats plus 2 coats on top without the bonding agent - I realised the mark was in fact grease or oil of some sort. Hrmmm - what to do?

I carried on, waited for it to dry, then a generous coating of hemp oil, buffed and re-coated...stain still showing but less obvious. I then decided to add a layer of furniture wax... much better, another few coats of furniture wax covered the mark - although I'm sure I can still see it, but I think I'm just paranoid about it now!.

As I was saying.. a piece never quite ends up how I visualize it, as well as the top being left in the wood I had plans on the drawer fronts staying wood as well - not after I realised as I was sanding that there was a thin layer of veneer! so I just kept right on sanding until it was all gone! - this piece was becoming a life work! I had to resort to painting the drawer fronts as well, but as this colour is very dark and its quite a small piece I had to think what I could do to break up the solid colour - maybe just a small subtle French  typography graphic - so I just added a Paris - Road address - painted in 'Grainsack' milk paint.

The table had a lot of interesting features, but sadly some of the decorative cornices on the corners at the top of the legs were missing - not being one to waste features like this - I wonder if you noticed - I used a couple of them on the chest of drawers! 

Some of them left some superficial damage, which was easily rectified with a little filler and sandpaper.

The top was quite marked, and I could see the wood was good, in fact I'm pretty sure it is solid mahogany, so this little beauty was going to get the full works with my sander!

She painted up beautifully just needing a little gentle buffing with some wire wool to take off all the little flaky bits where the milk paint peeled naturally as I didn't put any bonding agent in the paint this time.

 

I gave the top a coat of Rustins Wood Dye in 'walnut', before giving the entire piece a couple of generous coats of Hemp Oil.

    

Well, Artissimo has definitely lived up to my expectations - I really love this colour - it  does have a certain sophistication about it! 

Bye for now.

CJ

Milk Paint Marathon (with a graphic of course!)

This project has been an absolute marathon - it was a commission - the only brief being - "Just do what you do" and a request for distressed & shabby chic!
Well what I love to do, if you hadn't already noticed is put a graphic on my pieces - this project was an old 1930's oak sideboard an an oak refectory table and lent itself beautifully to some vintage typography.
I chose 2 colours, as the sideboard was R-E-A-L-L-Y BIG! and I thought 2 colours would break things up a bit and give some definition on the decorative bits, so I went for  Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint - Shutter Gray & Grain Sack. - a winning combination of grays.
I decided not to use any Bonding Agent as I wanted to let this piece distress as much as possible - well the guy did ask for distressed & shabby chic!
As the original surface was very shiny - particularly the top of the sideboard, I sanded the top right back to the bare wood - it was a gorgeous thick chunky oak top so I knew it would sand well, and made the perfect surface for a Graphics Fairy graphic, to tie the 2 pieces together I decided to put the full version of the graphic on the table top, and just the main title on the sideboard.

 

I finished both the top on the sideboard and the table top with Danish Oil, as this is hard wearing and will protect the wooden surfaces from heat and and spillages.

 

This is what the sideboard looked like before:

 Close up of the detail

 Here is the finished table top, I really like this graphic, I like the variety of different fonts, and it has a real vintage feel about it.
Here's a close up of the chipping on the legs/base of the table, it really looks authentic. Milk Paint is such a great product to achieve this look without having to sand back to the bear wood, which always looks a little un-natural to me

This what the base looked like prior to painting:

I was very pleased with the end result.  As these 2 pieces are so large, I did have difficulty in getting good photos, and they don't really show them off as I would have liked, the oak on both pieces is really substantial and they are in fact both the same colour although the pictures don't show it, s they are such large pieces of furniture I had to photograph them in different locations - hence the light makes the colours look different.
I think my next milk paint project is going to be somewhat smaller!
Bye for now
CJ

Mellow Yellow Milk Paint

I have had this little table hanging around for a while now, in fact so long it felt like an 'old friend' sitting in the corner.  It needed a little bit of 'leg tightening' and a couple of  the casters needed some oil and a serious talking to! but they soon gave in and were swivelling nicely.

I decided on Mustard Seed Yellow Milk Paint, for this piece, its a beautiful 'buttery custardy' shade of yellow, and gives a real feel of an old country kitchen, I just painted it straight onto the wood without any bonding agent as I wanted as much chipping as possible, however the wood was dry and old and very absorbent so it did not chip as much as I wanted it to. 

This is what it looked like after one coat.

After giving it 2 coats of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint, I gave it a quick coat of Hemp Oil, and the next day I lightly rubbed in some Miss Mustard Seed Antiquing Wax. I love this product, it just gives such a soft aged look, its easy to use, blends in so easily and smells really nice - yes can you believe it? - no smelly fumes that you get with other brands, its such a fabulous product.

Just a quick little makeover, I can't believe I left it so long before getting around to it!

Lots more Milk Paint projects on the way
Bye for now
CJ

Typography Graphic on Milk Paint

The beauty of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint is it's versatility, although my favourite look is an aged, distressed and 'chippy' look, with this little 3 drawer unit I wanted to create something dramatic out of a very plain piece of furniture.  

It was really solid, all the drawers were 'perfect runners' obviously the knobs had to go!

When searching for inspiration I always leave the piece in a very prominent place where I will see it lots, it works every time, sometimes sooner than others - with this piece it was quite quickly that I honed in on the very flat front and that the drawers fitted so snugly, it was perfect for adding a graphic - so I went straight over to the Graphics Fairy where I found this beauty! I wanted to fill as much of the front of the unit as possible for the biggest impact.

I painted the top and the back rail in 'Typewriter' using the bonding agent as I had decided I wanted a smooth and 'non-distressed' finish. 1st coat with Bonding Agent - 2nd coat without Bonding Agent, once it was dry I used the Hemp Oil to finish it and I gave it a couple more coats of Hemp Oil, leaving it to sink in each time, Hemp Oil is such a wonderful product it really brings a richness to the Milk Paint, and at the same time giving it a lovely durable finish.

The main body of the unit I painted in the colour 'Linen' this is a really lovely creamy white colour, again I used the Bonding Agent, and I gave it 2 top coats after the initial coat using the Bonding Agent. I left it a couple of days before handing over to my daughter Laura to work her magic on the graphic, which she did using the overhead projector method.

I 'ummed and ahhed'  over which knobs to use, trying crystal and pain black, but in the end I plumped for the small 30mm wooden ones which I painted in Linen to match the base colour, this I thought would not detract from the graphic.

I was so pleased with the finished piece, and even more pleased when I sold it on the 1st day of the Antiques Fair!

  

Lots more projects on the way.

Bye for now.

CJ