French Provincial Buffet Makeover with Aviary Milk Paint

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Whenever you find a beautiful piece of furniture, with good “bones” the question always comes…”What should I do with this?”

It takes some time to really feel out a piece, and decide what will give it a new life that will honor the type of piece that it already is.

That was the case for this French Provincial beauty!

I told yall a few posts ago that I have kind of a backlog of makeovers to share, so let’s get going with a really great one today 🙂

 

 

I found it recently at one of my new favorite thrift stores.

They weren’t even done unloading it onto the show floor when I pulled the tag!  These French Provincial pieces are getting harder and harder to find, this one was a real catch.

It’s solid wood, incredibly sturdy, and overall in great shape. Honestly, I was amazed someone would give it away!

I went back and forth for a while trying to decide what color to paint it . . . Maybe a nice white? Or a gray?

But then the new Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint color came out and I knew that was the right one!

 

 

Have you tried Aviary yet?

It’s a beautiful, smokey blue that’s more muted than the other blues of the line (think French Enamel or Flow Blue), and a bit darker than Bergere.

 

Prep for Painting

 

 

I think you can tell from this picture that the surface of this buffet is pretty slick.

When using milk paint, typically the slicker the surface, the more likely your milk paint is to chip–which if you want it to chip (like I did on this chest of drawers), then do nothing for your prep except wipe it off!

But if you don’t want to have a lot of chipping, it’s a good idea to give a slick piece a scuff with some sandpaper first.

That’s how I prepped this piece–cleaned with some of my Fusion TSP, then scuffed the whole surface with some 120 grit sandpaper.

That was enough to get the milk paint to adhere just fine, and I wound up with only a tad bit of chipping in a few recesses, which was fine with me.

This took 3 coats of the Aviary to get full coverage. After the final coat I sanded the whole piece in 320 grit sandpaper to make it feel butter smooth, then topped it off with a clear furniture wax.

 

After!

Here she is, much less orange, looking very stately and elegant in her new smokey blue!

 

 

 

One of the things I really appreciate about working with milk paint is how smooth the final finish is–completely brush-stroke free and smooth to the touch.

 

 

 

I also really love the depth of color you get with milk paint–it’s such a different look than you get with any pre-mixed paint.

And I’m glad I went with the Aviary!

It makes a better statement than a white or gray, but still fits with the elegant shape of this piece.

 

 

 

I hope you give this beautiful color a try!

 

And if you really want to try milk paint but are a little nervous about how it all works, I put together my online Milk Paint 101 Workshop to help with just that.

It will walk you through everything you need to know to create your own milk paint makeover.

 

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!