My Sweet Little Wash Stand

Was: Antique Wash Stand
Recreated into: Shabby chic style bedside stand painted with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint

I looove this antique washstand!  (And when I say looove, I mean it is one of my very favourite things and I don’t ever plan on parting with it!) It used to be in our family cottage and then was given to me about 20 years ago.  I have carted it from Maberly, Ontario to Boston, Massachusetts to Toledo, Ohio and back to Canada to Ottawa, Ontario.  This thing has travelled it’s share of miles (and who knows where it was before we acquired it in the early 70s??).

This is the type of piece that you know someone meticulously poured over while making.  The dovetails are perfect.  The original hardware is beautiful.  The wood is amazing.  You just know that with a little TLC this piece will last longer than most of us!

When I was first given the washstand, it had been painted a *lovely* shade of mint green… which I quickly proceeded to strip off.  Now I have nothing against mint green, I have just never had anything *minty* in any of my dwellings.  For years, I have just left the washstand in it’s au naturale, wooden state.  I have loved the colour of the wood and hesitated at all turns to ever paint it again… until last week.  With some trepidation, I finally decided that I would paint the beautiful wash stand as I am in the process of redoing my master bedroom and wanted to give this piece some new life as well.

Before

I chose Miss Mustard Seed’s Ironstone coloured Milk Paint®.  I had worked with Milk Paint before, as some of you may recall, but never on a large piece and it was exciting to finally do that!  I really didn’t do too much to prep this piece except remove the hardware (and dust bunnies) and that was about it.

Unsurprisingly, the wood just soaked up the Milk Paint on the first coat and left a lot of streak marks.  I was not loving how it was looking, AT ALL, so was reeeeally hoping that a second coat would look a lot better.  For the second batch of Milk Paint, I made it a little thicker and that really helped with coverage.  I didn’t put bonding agent in either coat as I was working on the raw wood (and didn’t mind if it chipped or cracked at all).

After the second coat, I was liking the colour and decided to stop there.  I didn’t want a full coverage paint job as I was planning on distressing the piece to give it an aged look.  Once the second coat of paint was dry, I used a very coarse sand paper to flake any spots that weren’t adhering (not many since it was raw wood) and then I distressed a lot of the natural wear spots.  I finished it all up by giving it a good coat of hemp oil and the wood just drank it up.

Once it was all said and done, I loooved!!! how it turned out!  I adore the worn, antiquey, distressed look and even though I didn’t think I could possibly love it any more than I had before I painted it, I do!

After

Linked to:

A Bowl Full of Lemons
Coastal Charm
Cornerstone Confessions
Diana Rambles
Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Home Stories A to Z
Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Summer Scraps
Titi Crafty by Camila
Finding Silver Pennies
Shabby Art Boutique
The Chicken Chick