Edwardian dressing table in milk paint...update...

Wow! Sorry about the delay there folks. Life has well and truly gotten in the way! I have been otherwise engaged with teaching Year 2 to sew, being a single parent while the husband works abroad, surviving a week with THREE seven year olds birthday parties and creating a plumbing crisis.

I thought it would be a nice surprise for the husband if I could change the bathroom taps and we might actually be able to use the hot tap. How hard can it be to change a tap? Answer: very hard if your pipes are not modern sizes. Anyway he was a little bit cross at the thought of coming home to a house with no water so I put it all back together and miraculously the old tap is now fixed (?) but leaks because I don't have the correct tighteny uppy thing. And that'll have to wait...

And I have a COLD! I don't ever get colds, I thought myself virtually superhuman, but after about 4 years cold-free I have succumbed to the lurgy. I'm very disappointed to be a mere mortal. Pah!

And there you all were, probably thinking the dressing table had all gone horribly wrong and I didn't want to show you. Well, that's a matter of opinion!  I like it. But I can see that it's not going to be to everyones taste! It's furniture marmite!

You might not believe this but I don't actually paint EVERYTHING white or cream. I do love the 'pale and interesting' look, it's true but in the past I have flirted with colour. The huge bookcase in the living room is green. See? I can be wild!

Okay, you're unlikely to see me painting furniture in strong colours often. But I love green, grey, blue and beige in interior decor. 

This Edwardian dressing table made me want to do a stronger colour. I wanted to go a little bit masculine with it. So I chose taupe. I only have two colours of milk paint, cream and taupe! Playing it safe!

The taupe turned out to be not very taupey at all and for a while there it just looked cream. I had some problems with it too. I did about 3 coats with very poor coverage and no hint of cracking whatsoever. It dawned on me that the paint was too watery. (Milk paint comes in powder form.) So I mixed it up a bit thicker and we hey!

Perhaps a bit too much?

 

Sometimes you've just got to hope it'll look alright in the end... don't be scared! (Okay you can be a bit scared!) If this was my first time with milk paint I would have wept!

The big reveal is not quite ready yet. Sorry. I thought I'd have it done by now. But here's a sneaky peak at the bits I have finished, to whet your appetites. Or not.

It's very grungey. 

I need a little more painting time, a lot of waxing and a dry day so we can drag it outside for it's photo shoot.

And I need a lot of hot ribena. Every cloud has a silver lining.