Peacock Green Milkpainted Antique Dresser with Agate and Brass Pulls
Just for fun, while I dragged my heels finishing up some tedious touches on one project, I did a (supposedly) quick project.
I had previously stumbled upon, and brought home, the perfect dresser for some milk paint, which I have been yearning to use for some time. This one was in great structural condition, so all it needed were cosmetic improvements. Here it is:
I always sand and prep every piece carefully. I didn't want any chipping with this one, so I also added the bonding agent. I'm convinced that this material is just watered down polyurethane, but I'm not a chemist and they don't list the ingredients on the bottle.
I used Peacock, from The Real Milk Paint Company. I enjoy the lights, darks, and striated colors of milk paint mixed from pigments and powders. When I have an actual antique (not just vintage) piece, it's my paint of preference.
It took many coats because I mistakenly sanded through the finish down to raw wood around the original pulls, which had cut large circular patterns in the wood that I knew would show when I used different pulls. When you don't sand evenly with milk paint, it soaks in differently and becomes very obvious. Drat. At one point, I had to cover the whole thing with flat polyurethane to get an acceptable even finish with several more coats.
When the piece looked done, I coated the whole thing with tung oil. This brings out more color in the paint, and enriches it. The drawers were sanded and sealed inside, and the great steel casters were rubbed with a little gold wax.
Then I put on the jewelry: green and yellow agate pulls from Anthropologie. Those are what this piece is about, anyway.
See the striations? That's what I like about Milk Paint.
A few spots did chip, so I ended up sanding those back a bit and reapplying the paint and the oil. It's a very relaxed, very livable look with a pop of glam in the fascinating brass mounted agate pulls.
Available in my Etsy shop.