I love my dining room table but I have been wanting to lighten it up for quite a while. It’s a solid wood table that can be extended so it is perfect for a smallish urban space… it’s just dark. 
I thought I would begin by sanding the top to see what it looked like under the dark stain. The grain turned out to be very pretty but is just a little too “busy” for me. 
After seeing the dark grain, I knew that I wanted to paint the entire piece.
I love milk paint and the look it gives so chose Homestead House Milk Paint in Limestone.
Limestone is a beautiful creamy white that is not too white and not too creamy 😉 Just perfect! 
With the table being so dark, I knew it would take a few coats to get some coverage.
This is after 2 coats…
This is after 4. It was just dark enough to cover the table but light enough to see some of the grain through the paint.
Having worked with milk paint many times before, but not Homestead House paint, I was really, really please with how smooth it was. It mixed up like a dream and was beautifully smooth and creamy ♥ 
Once the paint was to an opequeness that I liked, I began the distressing… 
I love distressing. (you can read here about how to make it look natural) I think distressing is what really gives the look of age to a piece. 
Two coats of Hemp Oil and the table was finished. 
I love the difference the light coloured milk paint gives the table. 
Now to decide what to do about chairs…
A huge thanks to Homestead House Paint for supplying the paint for this project!
Girl I love me some milk paint, and that is one great hue of white I must say! Perfect distressing, and I can’t wait to see the chairs with it! Thanks for sharing your project at Fridays Furniture Fix, love having you!
Oh man, me too. I think Milk Paint has to be my favourite <3
Like you, I love distressing my painted projects! I find that they look too ‘dead’ if just painted in flat paint and left like that. It’s really cool table and chairs. So what are you doing with the chairs? Keeping them the original colour? Thanks for the feedback on milk paint. I’ve tried lots of paints, but never milk paint and I’m looking forward to using some that I bought.
I couldn’t agree more! The looking dead is exactly how I would describe it 🙂 I am actually going to use different chairs then came with the set. I was never crazy about those chairs and thinking about having to paint all of those pieces makes me cringe 😉 I also wanted to find some that are lower. With the leaf out the table is fairly small so I wanted some chairs with a lower profile so that they don’t take away from the table. I found a set of MCM ones that are perfect and am working on them now. I will post those this week hopefully and I like them so much better with the table. Hope you are having a great weekend!
Hi, I'm Lisa!
Welcome to Recreated Designs... A place for you to find endless upcycling ideas, unique ways to use vintage finds and oodles of helpful tips and tricks for painting, crafting and recreating. I am so happy you are here and can’t wait to see what you create!
Continue reading about me here!