Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree …
How lovely is your wood grain …
My Father-in-law is quite the handyman and loves to build things. So when he saw this wooden Christmas tree on the front cover of the Australian Better Homes & Gardens magazine, he wanted to build one for me and one for my Mother-in-law.
And so he did! This is the day he gifted me mine, and I knew he’d left it unfinished because he knew how much I loved to paint things!
Pick a “Look”
I knew I wanted to give it a rustic farmhouse look, so I began by staining the raw pine with a wash of Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in the brown colour, Curio, which I often use as an ALL NATURAL, completely enviro friendly stain. You simply mix the paint powder to a watery consistency (I use a 1 part paint:3 parts water ratio).
Staining with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint
Brush the stain on with an ordinary paint brush or with a cloth. As you can see the stain dries to a grayish shade, but when you add a wax or hemp oil to finish (if you were leaving it as a stained look), the colour darkens to a walnut colour. Depending on how dark you want it, you can always either add more paint powder or add another layer of stain when the first coat is dry.
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Creating a RESIST:
I totally forgot to photograph the next step, which is to add some MMSMP Hemp Oil to create a “resist” between the stain and the next layer of paint I wanted to use as the finish, which is Miss Mustard Seed’s new colour being introduced in 2016, Farmhouse White.
However, to use this method of resist, I have blogged about it before HERE to create a rustic look on an IKEA storage box.
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The 2nd thing I did, was used Miss Mustard Seed’s Wax Puck for applying to the edges of the wood before applying the Farmhouse white paint. This also acts as a resist, so that only the stained wood would show through and not the raw blonde wood.
I also have a video where I show you exactly how to use hemp oil as a resist between two paint layers, AND the wax puck, here:
See the stained wood showing through and not the raw wood.
Here are some close ups of the edges to show you the outcome of using a resist between the layers of stain and paint.
And here are a couple of ways I styled this lovely finished Christmas Tree decor. Tell me in the comments which styling you prefer – the colour – or the neutrals?
How are you decorating for Christmas? What’s your Christmas style? Eclectic? Scandinavian? Traditional?
I hope you have fun decorating your house and making it a home that happiness abounds in this Christmas!
Sharon.
PS. Most of the products I used for this painting project are available on our online store in the Product tab.