HOW TO: Using milk paint with a bonding agent

This is one of the only pieces of furniture I bought BEFORE we moved in! And I had been itching to paint it ever since I saw it! I love that the wood didn't need any work! so it would be a perfect piece to try Miss Mustard Seed's Milk paint and try to get the chippy effect.

I decided I wanted a two tone feel, and I picked Grain Sack.

I painted all the pieces I knew I wanted in the grain sack. I will say that I was a little disappointed how "white" it looked... because the grain sack always appears to have more of the grey tint to it.

I added the bonding agent to this piece... because I wanted to have a little control over the chipping of the paint.

I originally wanted to stain the inside of the hutch to match the stain on the "trim"... but after sanding and sanding... the stain wouldn't stick. And I was out of milk paint. SO I used some of the leftover woodsmoke grey chalk paint I used on the buffet to paint the shelves.

To avoid getting any paint on the back of the hutch, I removed it by hammer the inside of the hutch until it was loose and pulling the nails out from behind.

I figure the wood backing is far enough away from the stained trim that it would still fit... but if not then I can always remove it again and add some fun paper or chalk paint it..

You can see the shelves vary slightly in color... and if you look closely, the original backing is lighter then the trim.

I liked that even with the bonding agent, I could "pick" at the paint in places I wanted chipping.

As you can see I really didn't want the chipping to go overboard... but I still wanted the piece to look aged. I am happy with the overall turnout!