Furniture Makeover, Family Room Jamie Gasparovic Furniture Makeover, Family Room Jamie Gasparovic

Chippy Farmhouse End Table

It may be Monday, but I finally finished up a lingering project, soooo I'm feeling okay about it. 

What lingering project did I finish? The end table for our family room - finally! It's a solid wood, antique Ethan Allen piece, and was a $20 Craigslist find. If you follow me on Instagram, you may recall this picture from forever ago:

It may be Monday, but I finally finished up a lingering project, soooo I'm feeling okay about it. 

What lingering project did I finish? The end table for our family room - finally! It's a solid wood, antique Ethan Allen piece, and was a $20 Craigslist find. If you follow me on Instagram, you may recall this picture from forever ago:

Ethan-Allen-end-table-before

That's just about the only picture I can find, so consider it my "before" shot! 

I decided to finally put my Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint to use on this table, and I'm so glad I did. My original plan was to do the top with milk paint, and then paint the base with chalk paint. Except... I fell head-over-heels for the milk paint as soon as I started using it, and the original plan was scrapped in favor of all milk paint.

Below is the table top after one coat of milk paint - I used Miss Mustard Seed's linen color. When I mixed the paint, I used a 1:1 ratio of paint (it comes in powder form) to water. For this top, I painted some on the table, and then used a spray bottle filled with water to further dilute the paint and spread it. I really love the minimal coverage look, and how the wood grain still shows through. If you wanted full coverage, I'd recommend 1-2 coats of paint mixed using a 1:1 paint to water ratio.  

Milk-Paint-table-top

And that was it for the top! (I had previously sanded off the dark stain, leaving a natural, light wood to begin with). 

For the base, I used the same 1:1 ratio to mix the paint, and it covered so well. The base was really unevenly sanded, and still had a lot of the dark stain left on it If you use milk paint on raw wood, the wood will soak it in (like the table top). However, if you layer milk paint over existing stain/finishes with no bonding agent, it will get flaky and chippy. Sign me up!

It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but after about an hour of drying, the paint started to crackle and chip off in some areas. At that point, I sanded it with a medium grit paper, distressed the edges a bit, and called it a day! Not before sealing it with my beloved Minwax finishing wax, of course!  

chippy-milk-paint-end-table

And the "after" shot:

milk-paint-end-table

I'm so happy with how this table turned out, and am dying to slather milk paint on everything I own now! 

What do you think? Would you want an end table that's this chippy or do you prefer a cleaner look?

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