IKEA Dresser Meets Miss Mustard Seed

Milk Paint has long been an intrigue of mine. I first learned about it when I started Pretty Distressed back in 2014, and found about Miss Mustard Seed paint. If you don't follow Marian's blog, Miss Mustard Seed, you should. She is a real inspiration to furniture painters.

I was wasting time one day in downtown Geneva, Ill. before I had to pick up the kids from school and wondered into an antique shop who just happened to carry the paint. I snagged the last bag of Farmhouse White they had. I couldn't wait to get it home and play around with it! I had an IKEA dumpster dive in my garage that was screaming for a makeover and my youngest was in desperate need of more drawer space.

As my avid followers are aware, I am a big fan and user of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I love it for the ease of no prep furniture painting. For those who are thinking about trying Milk Paint, it really is a entirely different animal. It comes in powder form and you mix it with water to create a milky consistent paint. You can do some really cool things with it. The one that intrigued me the most was a really chippy look.

I started by using my orbital sander to take off the current stain because it was really slick and orange. I wanted more of an industrial look since this is for a boy's room, so I sanded it down to strip the color completely. Then I played around with some stain that I had. I ended up using Minwax Special Walnut, one of my personal favs, and Varathane Weathered Gray in a 1:1 ratio.  

After I stained the whole dresser, I randomly applied some all natural beeswax to help create the chippy effect I wanted once I applied the paint. I had some on hand, but Miss Mustard Seed carries beeswax, too. The wax repels the paint and allows it to flake off in chippy, gorgeous chunks.

Next up was painting. There are directions on each bag of paint on how to mix it up. You can select the amount of paint you want to use and mix the powder and water in a 1:1 ratio. You can't save the paint to use later, so mix cautiously. You can always mix up more if you run out. I did two coats.

I didn't see any chipping until after my second coat dried, so don't freak out if the first coat doesn't chip. I don't know how this works, but it is super cool. And resist the urge to scrape the flakes off before it is completely dry. Set a timer and stay away! Below is a pic of what the chipping looks like. When it is dry you can take a putty knife and start chipping away at the spots that are flaking. I'm no expert here, just an experimenter. If you want tips on how to paint with Milk Paint check out Miss Mustard Seed's YouTube channel. It is were I went for a how to.

Scraping the paint off is so fun! But it is definitely not meant for people who like having total control over the piece. It does what it wants, and you have to roll with it. I didn't take any pictures of me chipping it away, but here is how it looked at the end.

To seal the piece I used my Annie Sloan Soft Wax in clear. Miss Mustard Seed has her own wax as well, but again I used what I had on hand. For the industrial look I was going for I ordered some library label pulls from Amazon. Here is what the finished product looks like. 

It was really so much fun playing with milk paint to achieve this chippy, industrial look. What do you think? Would you like to try it out?