As you may know by now, milk paint has a mind of its own. It’s difficult to use this paint if you have a predetermined look you want to achieve.  There are times when this paint chips and there are times when it sticks to wood better than glue.

This chest proved to have a lot of chipping.  In part, that is due to the polyurethane coat that was applied to the wood.  The entire piece was sanded thoroughly using 180 grit sand paper which normally ensures good adhesion.

Wait.  I am getting ahead of myself.

After cleaning and sanding the piece and wiping it down – I turned it upside down and put it on a cart with wheels. A number of people asked me how I painted furniture, especially legs and didn’t get any drips.  My secret is that I paint furniture upside down.  I flip furniture so the legs are in the air and I paint them first.  The top of any piece of furniture – is the last part I paint.

Placing furniture on a platform with wheels makes it so much easier to move around while you are working on it.

 

 

The drawers were painted after I removed all the knobs

 

 

It became pretty apparent after the first coat of paint that the drawers were going to “chip”.  Meaning, the paint was flaking away in sections and not adhering to the wood.  I personally like the chippiness of milk paint because I feel it gives old furniture a more authentic look.  To my knowledge. milk paint is the only paint that will give you this chippy look.

The top of the chest of drawers is sealed with polycrylic to protect it from the occasional glass of water or vase of flowers.  (Polycrylic is water based and is not to be confused with its cousin polyurethane)

The ironic thing is that the milk paint had good adhesion to the top and to the sides of this piece of furniture.   There was some chipping but nothing quite like the front.

 

 

 

Truth of the matter is – I can’t decide if I like this or not. So perhaps I will sit with it for a week or two and decide.  If I don’t like it – it means sanding the entire piece again to remove all the paint.

 

 

What are your thoughts?  Keep the current look?  Sand it all off and start over?

 

 

Thanks for stopping by the blog and for your sharing your thoughts with me on this topic!  Please comment below and let me know what you would do.