Milk paint is fast becoming a favorite.  Especially since I broke down and used a Tupperware bowl and my kitchen whisk to stir the stuff up this time.  If you haven’t ever used Milk Paint – go to Miss Mustard Seed’s blog to read all about it – how it works, what it is, and how to use it.

I showed you the armoire I recently purchased here.  It was a tv armoire, very solid and heavy, and HUGE.  Just what I needed to hold all the fabric I have around all the time.  Can’t run a business that involves a lot of sewing and creativity without having fabric on hand 😀  I knew I wanted to use the armoire immediately but I also knew I couldn’t fill it up with it looking all orange oak like it was.  So I painted it the minute my husband was done reworking the inside and adding shelves.  We picked it up on a Thursday night and by the end of the weekend it was painted and filled.

Here is the finished project.  I used Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint (bet you hadn’t figured that out from the title of the post huh?!).  I mixed some colors I had around – Eulalies sky, Ironstone, and Shutter Grey I think.  That mixture was enough to do 2 coats on everything but the door insets.  I then mixed up some more Shutter Grey, a bit of Flow Blue, and some Linen to paint the insets of the doors.  It ended up a white/grey/blue color that is quite pretty – but there is no way I could duplicate it!

I wasn’t sure I wanted to use Milk Paint because I really didn’t like the orange color of the finish on the armoire. (I know, I know, my china cupboard is the same color – I’m still working on my hubby to let me paint that one – no I haven’t given up yet)  I don’t have any bonding agent to add to the milk paint (will have to get some to have on hand) so I just went with it.  It’s fun to see what the milk paint will do anyway.  Hubby thinks I should have used Chalk Paint but I kind of like what I ended up with.  It’s growing on me!

Miss Mustard Seed also has a white wax now and I bought some of it the last time I ordered paint.  I used the white wax over the places that chipped off to cover some of the orange.  And I don’t think it looks quite so orange-y once most of it is covered with paint.

I have no idea why the paint chipped off so much in some places and none at all in others.  That’s the fun of milk paint – you never know what it’s going to do and you can just go with it and see what you can create.

I bought new knobs for the armoire at Hobby Lobby.  They are large, crystal knobs and they are mismatched.  I love the mismatched look for this piece.

I set my wire laundry cart beside the armoire and filled it with my vintage European grain sacks.  I love having them out where I can see them and it frees up more space in the armoire for other fabrics 🙂

I’m getting ready to start creating some things for Christmas out of these grain sacks!

This is the other corner of the room – on the other side of the window.  I’d like to get another armoire that matches to put here and organize all this stuff.  Then the desk cold sit under the window between the two armoires.

I’m super happy that this side of the room is so neat and organized for now though!  I’ll keep trolling CraigsList for another armoire at as good a price as this one – I only paid $65 for it 🙂  I consider this storage solution to be the next best thing to custom built-ins.

Jill