Hi friends! As you can see by our recent posts, refinishing season is well under way for the StyleMutt Home girls - and I don't just mean Cate and me! My daughter, Shire, has been workin' on her own flipped finds to share with you! She started painting furniture a few years ago when she was 3. Her first piece was a child's chair she painted Antibes Green by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. We listed it for sale and my Dad, Shire's 'Pops', bought it. :) These days she's learning more about the business of refinishing furniture - what sells and why. If you ask Shire what she would like to do when she grows up, this is it. In her 6 year old opinion, she's living the dream!
This is a healthy stack of pieces we stocked a couple weekends ago via our loaded DC Metro area Craigslist. Sometimes it's hot, sometimes not. We had a really hot week recently and I contacted around two dozen sellers. I've gotten picky in my old age, though. Since refinishing has become something I do more on the side as we're starting to focus on home styling and design, I invest only in pieces I'm really excited about. It's a lot of time and resources to refinish and it's got to be really worth it. The top of this stack, however, was not a premeditated purchase. Shire and I went to a mid-century modern warehouse flash sale in hopes of finding some authentic goodies, and she saw this pair of end tables stacked on top of a few other pieces. They were priced low and for the pair; done and done!
When the owner of this warehouse asked Shire how she was going to refinish this pair of tables, she didn't skip a beat when she answered, "white!"
She used a can of combined chalk paint, (Pure White) + milk paint, (Grain Sack), that we had on hand. Combining these two types of paint not only stretches my leftovers, but creates such an authentically time worn finish. Chippy pieces are so charming when they look aged by years and years of love. After Shire's pieces dried we sanded them gently using a medium grit sanding sponge, (favorite distressing tool), and the paint just flaked right off!
Before sanding I taped off the bottom 4" of the legs and took the power sander to that area to completely strip the paint and finish. Love the raw wood grounding this pair!
The best part about using milk paint is the unpredictability, in my opinion. The paint flakes where it wants to flake and there's not much you'll be able to do about it. It's fabulous! Perhaps not the best tool for a type A perfectionist since you really can't control where the chipping will happen. But it's for this reason that I think it looks the most real. Sometimes distressing looks a little too contrived. I want to look at a piece and be fooled into wondering if it actually has been sitting out on this antique store front's porch for the past 50 years. Shire painted these two tables at the same time in pretty much the same manner, and one tables top flaked way more than the other! How fun!
Shire's tables pictured below with a little teaser from Momma. :)
Chippy White Tables
$45 for the pair
Contact chelsea@stylemutthome.com if interested!
Thank you so much for coming by!
