The Olde Farmhouse on Windmill Hill: MMS Milk Painted Buffet {and some tips}

Hellooooo!? Anybody out there?

It has been so long since I've posted on here that you've probably all given up on me. Unless you follow me on facebook. Then you have an idea what I've been up to.

A few weeks ago, I decided the garage had been a catch-all for too long. It was getting cleaned out! Risking life and limb, I waded in. Tossing junk, unearthing projects, and organizing tools. I think we can actually park 2 cars now if we need to. :)

I had a goal to refinish/repurpose two of the bigger projects I had uncovered by this weekend because one of my friends was having a garage sale. She had invited me to put things on it. I realize, these were not really garage sale pieces or prices but publicity is good, right? As it turns out, I did not sell either piece but I did have a couple people take my number so who knows, I might sell them yet.

Anyway, this post is to show before and after of the one piece; an antique oak buffet.

BEFORE

The piece was mostly sturdy but had some rough areas. The left front leg had obviously sat in water for quite awhile. It had rotten away and made the buffet sit un-level. The veneer on the top was bubbling and peeling in places.

Peeling veneer on the top

The top also had a gap at the back where the top used to fit down into. Using my heat gun, I stripped the veneer off the top. I then sanded it well and glued an oak board on the back where the gap was. When the glue was dry, I filled the holes and imperfections with a stainable wood filler and stained the whole top with Minwax Special Walnut.

To fix the rotten leg problem, I cut the front legs off level with the bottom of the buffet and added feet from Lowes. They were about an inch or so shorter than the other feet had been so I cut off the back feet to match the height. Now it sits level again. :)

For the buffet 'body', I gave it a good washing and a Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint treatment and coated it with clear wax.

Here is what I learned about MMS Milk Paint:

Mix it thicker than the suggested ratio. I did a 1:1 ratio
Even mixing it thicker, you will likely need more than 2 coats to cover a dark piece with light paint.
Your project will look awful for the first coat or two; don't give up!

I ended up doing 4 coats. The first coat I mixed the recommended 1 part paint to 1 1/2 parts water. It went on very runny and when it dried it just looked like a light wash. I went back online and began reading what I did wrong. On one blog I found where the blogger recommended mixing a 1 to 1 ratio if painting a light color over dark. For the second and subsequent coats that's what I did and it went on a lot better. The coverage still isn't all that great and I did 4 coats until I was happy with the coverage. I noticed in places where the paint kinda pooled (like crevices) the paint dried crackly. It didn't chip necessarily but it just got an old crackly look. After the second coat (which is what most people stop with), I had zero chipping and very minimal coverage. I was very discouraged, thinking all the hype about this paint was just that; hype. I decided to do at least one more coat. Low and behold, after that coat dried, it began to chip a little and crackle. The coverage still wasn't what I wanted so I did a fourth coat before scraping it to peel off the chips. I finished it with clear wax.

Since the inside was pretty dark and nasty, I decided to paint it an line the bottom surfaces with wallpaper that looks like old newspaper. I also added new hardware from Hobby Lobby.