Remember the three IKEA storage boxes I was given earlier this year? I had completed and shown you two of them.
Here’s the first one, and you can see how I achieved this look HERE using Luckett’s Green (Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint) and Dried Lavender (now discontinued colour).
Here’s the second box, and you can see how I achieved this look HERE, using MMSMP in Linen for the base and Curio colour as a stain for the top.
All three boxes started like this:
Here’s my third box and I’ll show you how I created this finish in this post:
Starting with the lid of the box, this raw wood was in need of a good staining.
So I used a wash mix of Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in the colour Typewriter, using:
1 part milk paint powder : 3 parts water.
After mixing thoroughly using a mini whisk or milk paint mixer, brush the “stain” on going with the grain of the wood. In this picture, it is still drying, and you can see the parts that have dried will look quite chalky. I then went over the entire lid with MMSMP Hemp Oil, rubbing along the grain and wiping off any excess. The hemp oil will soak right into the wood and give a matte finish.
I then used the Typewriter coloured stain over the entire box, so that I would have a darker layer showing through the top layer of white paint that I wanted to apply. The side panels are just a cheap type of masonite board, so I wasn’t sure how they were going to stain or if it would be as effective, but the sides turned out just fine.
The next step, was to coat the entire box with MMSMP Hemp Oil. I did this to create a “resist” so that there would be parts of the dark showing through after I paint the top layer and sand back to distress. The hemp oil is applied fairly liberally to act as a resistant layer between these two coats of different coloured paint.
The next step, is to mix equal parts of Ironstone colour (MMSMP) to water, and painting the entire box with the white layer. You may start to notice a little beading of the white paint, and this is due to the hemp oil doing exactly what you want it to do – resist the white paint. I usually paint over the hemp oil immediately if I’m using it as a resist. You don’t want it to dry out, for best results.
Even though you are going to be distressing this white layer, I try to paint as neatly as I can going with the grain of the wood. Because I want a rustic wash look I only painted one coat of the white Ironstone colour.
Then comes the fun part – distressing, using a very fine grade sandpaper (I used 320 grit). Going with the grain of the wood ever so lightly, so that you are only sanding the top white layer and not the black typewriter underneath. You DON’T want to sand back to the raw wood.
Here are some closer pics of the sanded back finish.
I then used Hemp Oil over the entire finished box to seal in the paint, giving it a nice finish.
After I’d finished, I was moving the box around and decided it needed some rope handles to help lift it. I drilled two holes in each end after measuring to find the centre. I had some rope already, so made sure the drill bits I used were slightly wider than the rope.
There … much better.
If you’d like to achieve this look using Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint, you can order online here on my website (Australian orders only) or for other parts of the world, check for a stockist near you via www.missmustardseedsmilkpaint.com
For this exact look you will need:
– a raw wood storage box of some kind (this one is from IKEA)
– Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint – Typewriter (approx 1/4 cup powder)
– Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint – Ironstone (approx 1/4 cup powder)
– MMSMP Hemp Oil
– Jute rope
Also available on my product page to assist you with this project:
– soft natural bristle paint brushes,
– Milk Paint Mixer or wire whisk,
– brush soap (great for cleaning and conditioning your natural bristle brush)
– SandiHands Sanding gloves
If you have any questions about this project, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer.
Just a re-cap pic of all three boxes and the different looks I gave each one.
STOP PRESS: I’ve just uploaded a video tutorial that also explains the resist method I used on the 3rd chest box here:
Happy Painting everyone!