1st Fusion Mineral Paint Project

For some time now I have been wanting to try out the new paint line from Homestead House Paint Company - the company that manufacture Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint, unfortunately it's not available to buy in the UK so I ordered a selection of colours from Goedele Francois at Old Red Barn in Belgium.

The packaging and branding looks really classy, and the paint is fabulous - feels like thick smooth cream - it dries very quickly although it is recommended that you leave 12 hours before applying further coats.  The paint is acrylic based, is very low in VOC's as it contains a lot of natural ingredients.  Very little prep work is required although for shiny or pre finished surfaces it is advisable to lightly sand your surface before painting.  You don't need to add a top coat unless you want a particular finish as it is all incorporated in the paint, the finish is beautifully matt - not at all chalky. These are the colours in the line.

I have had this chest of drawers/dresser for a number of years - I have always loved the wood, the castors and the lovely curly detail at the bottom. 

As the top has some holes where it would originally have had a mirror or some sort of shelf attached, I thought the best course of action would be to paint it - this way I could fill the holes and paint over them so no-one would ever know they had ever been there!

I used some dowels to plug up the holes, sticking them in with glue, I made sure they were a nice snug fit in the holes, I then used wood filler to cover over the gaps.

The front of the drawers had a lovely walnut veneer finish - the lacquer was peeling and looked dull, so I very carefully and lightly sanded the drawer fronts - removing all the lacquer, I then masked off the walnut veneered fronts, just leaving the edges clear for painting. - I knew straight away that Coal Black was going to give this piece a dramatic and sophisticated look so I painted everything except the walnut veneer - once I removed the masking tape I massaged some Hemp Oil into the drawer fronts where I had sanded, this rejuvenated the look of the veneer giving it an amazing patina and a fabulous contrast with the Coal Black Fusion Mineral Paint.

The paint covered over the filled holes on the top beautifully.   I gave the piece just 2 coats of paint then lightly distressed all the edges with fine sandpaper then finished with some hemp oil over the paint as well as the drawer fronts.

I'm really pleased with the finish and I'm looking forward to using the other colours I ordered, the paint is lovely to use gives an amazing finish and has a great range of colours.
Bye for now
CJ

New European Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint Colours!

 Here's a preview of the New Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint colours - watch out for some of my own projects using these gorgeous shades very soon!

Aren't they all FABULOUS!  Can't wait to share some painting projects using them.
CJ

Custom Mixing Milk Paint

It's been a while since my last blog post - there has been lots going on, but I realised how much I had missed posting my projects.  So I have cleared the decks a little - well just enough to enable me to get some painting done and to be able to photograph as I go.

I'm starting off the year with this chair - it's been hanging around for at least 2 years! I picked it up at a car boot sale for £3 - The fabric on the seat pad was pretty awful but I did get around to taking it off straight away and that's as far as I got with it. The rest of the chair was in good condition, although some of he surface lacquer was a little cracked and peeling, I like it when the surface is like this as the milk paint enhances the imperfections giving it an interesting patina.

 I had an off cut/sample I was given of some beautiful Toile de Jouy in pale green and reddish/pink, so I decided to custom mix my Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint to create a a slightly lighter, toning pale green.  Lucketts Green on it's own was a little too bluey - so after some experimenting I ended up with the following mix:

2 parts Linen, a half part Lucketts Green and a half part Mustard Seed Yellow - it's a rather lovely Pistachio colour, and is slightly paler than the background colour of the fabric.

I actually took these photos with my mobile phone and the colour has reproduced pretty much exactly how it looks, it's a very pretty colour. This project was just 2 quick coats of the custom mixed Milk Paint, a very light sanding when the paint was dry just giving a nice amount of distressing on the edges, a quick lick of hemp oil, covering the seat pad took longer than painting the chair!

All in all a great little project to get me back into the groove!

Bye for now...
CJ