Morning Guys! I hope everyone is having a good day.
A few years ago, I refurbished some old kitchen chairs with 2 chalk paint colors and finished them off with clear wax.
At the time I said never again!
It took forever and some of process was no fun… But they turned out really nice so here we go again.
This time I decided I would do it differently. I got given these solid wooden kitchen chairs from my mother-in-law.
They have a lovely cabin in the mountains in Norway, this is where they had these chairs before.
But she had just changed them out with some new ones. So I got given the chance to renew these.
I choose a day it was warm and got to work giving them a clean. I also unscrewed the seats and removed the material.
This went fairly quickly.
I then mixed up the milk paint and applied it to the chairs.
For this project I tried Mrs Mustard Seeds Milk Paint in the color Shutter grey for the first time and I also added material to the chair’s seats.
The milk paint was a joy to use super easy and I can imagine the endless possibilities when using this. Milk paint can be made from milk and lime, generally with pigments of color.
Milk paint has been used for thousands of years, there has been evidence of milk paint in cave paintings in Australia dating back 30,000 years.
So this was so much fun to try!
It was also so much fun adding material to the seats, the choices were endless and there were so many beautiful colors and patterns to choose from.
I really could have stayed there all day.
Milk paint – Beginners guide
- Milk paint is a non- toxic environmentally friendly water-based paint.
- It is a no VOC paint which means there is very little Odor.
- Biodegradable- Which is great!
- Shelve life before mixed can be 3 years or more. A little unsure of how long it lasts once mixed and left in the fridge. (Anywhere from a few days to a month I have read)
- The best adhesion is achieved on raw wood.
- This paint ages beautifully when applied to furniture, instead of peeling off it sinks into the wood and gives a worn and naturally effect.
- This style of paint can give a stunning chippy distressed look too. which is what it is most known for.
Take a look at some examples of this chippy loveliness.
https://missmustardseed.com/furniture-dilemmas-connies-
https://www.dododsondesigns.com/milk-paint-chippy-wood-furniture/
Step 1. Remove seats
These seats were screwed into the frame of the chairs. I unscrewed these and also removed the material that had been stapled to the cushion of the seat.
This was the first step and meant I could paint the chairs properly and reupholster them.
Step 2. Clean chairs
For the next stage I gave the chairs a good clean. I used a product similar to TSP (husvask) for this. I used a sponge with a scrubby side and gave them a good scrub whilst washing.
I did this outside and got the chairs quite wet. I washed them down with water after washing with the cleaning product this was to remove any leftover cleaning product.
I then left them to dry.
Step 3. Sanding
I gave the chairs a very quick sanding as they did not need much to accept the paint.
For this I used a 220-grit sand paper.
I wiped the chairs with a tack cloth and made sure they were dust free before I began painting.
Step 4. Painting 1st coat
To mix up the paint you need the milk paint and water. For this project I was a little unsure how far the milk paint would stretch. So i decided to do a very light layer of paint almost like a wash of color even though I didn’t wipe any off after or leave any areas without paint.
I mixed up a portion at a time which covered one chair at a time. I had read it is worth using up the paint as it does not last long after it had been mixed.
I had also read though that you can store it for a while in the fridge. The paint dried very quickly; this took roughly 30 minutes.
How to mix Milk Paint
- 1:1 Ratio
- Whatever size scoop you would like to use
- I added the water first then dried the scoop and then added the powder.
- Mix for 1 minute.
- Leave for 20 minutes.
- Then mix again for about 1 minute.
Step 5. Painting 2nd coat
I did not sand in between coats, I just waited for the milk paint to dry which took about 30 minutes.
What do you think of Milk paint? Have you ever tried it? Tell me what you thought of it in the comments section. I would love to hear from you.
I then did another light coat of paint, trying to not have too much on my paint brush (not letting the paint run down the paint brush.
The mixture was quite watery, so be careful.
Step 6. Sanding/ Distressing
I then waited for this to dry so that I could sand to distress certain areas of the chairs.
I did this in places like edges but I also did a little more in some random parts this was to add the most natural distressing effect.
Step 7. Reupholster chair cushions.
I removed one of the bits of material covering the seat cushion.
I measured this to estimate how much material i would need to recover them.
I added a little extra material just in case.
I used a staple gun to reattach the new material to the cushion and board.
I was careful to pull the material tight and use a lot of staples to keep the material properly in place.
It is also worth turning the cushion up side down as you go along to make sure everything is in the right place.
This went better than expected and was really enjoyable.
I cant wait to do this again.
Step 8. Spraying a can of Polycrylic to seal the chairs
This was so much easier to apply on such a project.
I did however go over them twice to be sure i got complete coverage.
Step 9. Attach seat cushions back on chairs
These were simply screwed on. So i reattached these.
This project ended up super quick and super easy!
Hope you enjoyed this post and i would love to hear what you thought of this project.
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Hope everyone is having a great day. See you soon.
Love Anna x
