Trophy & Apron Strings Milk Paint Bureau

This bureau was given to me last Autumn by a very dear friend who was clearing lots of furniture from his parents house - lucky me - I will have more pieces to show at a later date!

The outside is painted in Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint - 'Trophy' (one of  the  colours of the month for March) and the inside with 'Apron Strings'  - now, I love the vibrant pinky coral of 'Apron Strings' but I don't have that perfect piece to paint at present  - so I went for the next best thing which was to have it inside this 'cute' bureau.

I also painted the drawer knobs with 'Apron Strings' and decoupaged some filigree card over the top and painted it with 'Trophy' to bring it all together.

I completely forgot to take a 'before' picture, however I did take a few shots as I prepared it ready for painting, which gives you an idea of what it looked like before.  I took out the 'cubby hole' section  to make it easier to paint, I just eased out the pins which were holding it in place and it slid out nicely.

This is how I painted the narrow side edges - I feathered in towards the inside, and got a lovely clean line between the two paint colours, no spots or splodges at all!

Once I applied two coats of each colour, I gave it a generous coat of hemp oil, you can see here the difference it makes when you apply the hemp oil, it brings the colour and the paint to 'life'!

I didn't add any bonding agent as I was open to any chipping that may happen... which actually didn't happen, but as I only applied two thin coats I did get a lovely 'worn' look and you can almost see the wood grain through the Milk Paint - a look you can really only get with Milk Paint.

After giving the hemp oil a good buffing, I have decided I am going to ponder on whether I want to add the white wax onto the 'Trophy' to give it all a little bit of a faded  look - I will leave the inside just with the hemp oil, as I love the vibrancy that 'pops' out when you open the drawers or front cover.
All in all I think these two colours really compliment each other and it's given me lots of ideas for pairing together some of the other colours in the MMSMP line - so many lovely colours!
CJ, Juniper & Roses
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Nutley Antiques - A 'Gem' of a Find

Whilst organising my office the other day I found a leaflet for 'Nutley Antiques'  - Nutley is a very small village about 30 minutes drive from where I live.  So I made a trip out there today with my dear friend Lin - WOWZER!! I love this place! - overflowing with everything I love, textiles, glass, ceramics, furniture and everything else in between!

This is the original paint on this garden bench - stunning...

 I love the way the paint on this gorgeous cupboard has aged - lovin' the colours and layers.

A classic linen cupboard...

 

Vintage cutlery & Lloyd Loom...

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Love this glass canister...

Pretty metal rocking horse... 

 Look at this cute vintage lawn mower...

This bust is gorgeous...

 

 

Look at the layered paint effect on the shop front!

The shop is a collection of different sellers, Clare Askaroff was manning the shop today and she also sells her antiques in Lewes Antiques Centre (stall 30) - which is also another great place I love for browsing antiques.
Do you have a favorite place where you love to browse?
CJ

Creating Chippy Vintage Doors - with 'Ironstone' Milk Paint

I found these pretty ornate wardrobe doors a couple of weeks ago at Ardingly Antiques Fair, as soon as I spotted  them I thought they would be perfect to hang on the wall, but first I would need to make them look chippy and old! What better way to create 'the look' than with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint - I chose the colour Ironstone, which is a true white, although I would need to make them look like they were painted years ago.

When using the white shades it's always best to apply a coat of a medium shade of milk paint as a base coat, white paint always takes a lot of coats to cover a dark pre-finished wood like this, but if the white is applied on top of a darker colour coat of Milk Paint  it will only need one or two coats.  I wanted the effect to be chippy and old, so I used the colour 'Trophy' (no bonding) as my base coat as I wanted to have this peeping through the Ironstone in some places, this gorgeous steely grey colour is a perfect base coat for the look I wanted.

 

I applied two coats of 'Trophy' and then applied a little 'Hemp Oil' on a few random places to create a 'resist' for the 'Ironstone' milk paint which I applied straight away whilst the 'Hemp Oil' was still wet.

I applied 2 coats of 'Ironstone' 

After the 2nd coat of 'Ironstone' was dry I gently sanded with fine sandpaper and found all the places where I had applied the 'Hemp Oil' and rubbed any residue of the dried paint away - leaving the exposed coat of Trophy underneath.

If I get a build up of dried paint in the crevices I use a stiff bristle brush which smooths it out without leaving clumps of paint in these areas.

Just one quick coat of Antiquing Wax - which I always apply with a brush in small areas and then buff off after 5 minutes. 

I'm really pleased with the transformation the doors have turned out exactly how I had imagined them - I can use them single or double depending where I want to hang them - in fact there are quite a few places I can put them, so I will have some fun playing around with them.

I will definitely be on the look out for some more doors I really love them as a wall decoration.

CJ

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