Yellow Sideboard with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint

I found this great little sideboard at a local antique shop.  I loved the clean lines and the original hardware, but it was pretty beat up.

After some elbow grease and a few coats of paint… here she is all full of sunshine.

Before beginning the painting process I removed all the drawers, doors and hardware and gave everything a quick 10 minute sand with a medium grit sanding wedge. I then used a dry cloth to wipe off all the dust. Sanding is a great way to clean your piece and also provides a good surface for your paint to adhere.

I decided to go out of my comfort zone and try my hand at Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint. Milk paint is different from traditional paint because it comes in powder form and you mix it with water. To learn more about milk paint look here.

Image from Miss Mustard Seed

The best part about Miss Mustard Seed’s paint are the beautiful colors.  I chose Mustard Seed Yellow. It is the perfect shade of cheery yellow without being too lemon or too green. 

Image from Miss Mustard Seed

 

Now I can’t lie, mixing it was a PAIN!  It was tricky getting the right proportions and no matter how long I mixed it (even in the vitamix) I still felt like there were little granules of pigment left over. (This was especially problematic as I got to the end of my paint supply and the color changed to a darker hue because of the settled pigment… very frustrating!)

Once the paint was all mixed up I also added Miss Mustard Seed’s bonding agent to make sure the paint would stick well to my sideboard. I wanted a nice even finish without any distressing or chipping.

Here is how it looked after just one coat. 

As you can see the paint is quite thin and I had to do 4 coats to get the coverage that I wanted. So even though I didn’t have to prime, I made up for it with all the extra coats of paint. 

Helpful tip: If I am painting a sideboard, buffet or dresser I never paint the inside of the piece or the sides of the drawers. I only paint the drawer fronts to ensure that the drawers will still slide correctly. 

After the painting was complete I followed the package directions to apply the clear Furniture Wax. This was the first time that I had worked with the wax and it was super quick and easy.

After the waxing I got to work on cleaning up the hardware. I used a combination of lemon, salt, steel wool and lots of elbow grease to remove the years of grime.

After a good scrubbing I used “Rub and Buff” in Gold Leaf to give it that nice extra shine.

I love the way the gold handles look agains the buttery paint. 

All in all, I love how the sideboard turned out, but I am not sure if I will use the milk paint again.  Here are the pros and cons that I found.

Pros:

1. Fabulous Color
2. Nice Hard Finish (unlike latex where you can easily scrape off the paint)
3. Flexibility in mixing the color to change the saturation and consistency
4. Sands and distresses easily

Cons:

1. Mixing was a pain
2. When I got to the end granules of paint had settled at the bottom creating a darker color (If you look closely you can see this in the bottom drawer)
3. 4 coats to get a nice opaque finish

I think painting is a little bit like having babies, while you are in the middle of it it seems like it will never end but once you have the beautiful finished product you tend to forget about all the struggles in between 🙂

And one more “before and after” shot just for fun.

I can’t wait to show you the finished nook with this beautiful sideboard! Remember the big wallpaper debate with the golden flowers? Well, it is all redone and it is so so lovely! That post is coming soon!