Since moving house, I have been keeping my beady eye out for nice upcycle projects using retro furniture from Gumtree. About a month ago, I spotted this lovely piece that was already completed for sale at a very reasonable price of £90.
Mála Furniture drawers in General Finishes Milk Paint Persian Blue
We jumped into the car and collected the drawers from a lovely girl called Zoe in Falkirk. Having previously worked painting furniture, this was her first foray into selecting and selling her own pieces.
Mála Furniture Facebook Site
We had a wee chin-wag about Annie Sloan versus other chalk brands and the paint she used for this piece, General Finishes Milk Paint, which I had previously never heard of. This paint is made by a small American company in Wisconsin. It does not contain milk and comes pre-mixed, so is not a true milk paint, but can be used to produce the same effects. The paint doesn't need to be primed and offers a smoother, more durable finish than chalk paints.
I feared that the colour, whilst beautiful, might be too blue for our bedroom. Duck egg shades seem to have a lovely trait of changing from blue to green depending on what they are near. I would never have chosen Persian Blue for our bedroom, but once we got the drawers home, I think that they fit in wonderfully.
Persian Blue GF Milk Paint - a great match for our Laura Ashley Paul Duck Egg bedroom walls
And so the hunt for the perfect mid century modern dressing table commences
Luckily, just a week later, I found this wee cracker for sale two streets away. It was a steal at only £10, but we are the world's worst hagglers and so offered the lady £20!
Gumtree Ad Before Photo
Next, I needed to procure my supplies. General Finishes paint is available online but I noticed that Acanthus in Bruntsfield are stockists, so decided to pop along. The shop has just reopened following a revamp and the ladies are very friendly and knowledgeable with many hints and tips. I picked up a tin of the Persian Blue, the High Performance matte topcoat and some 4 inch wide foam brushes. The paint is pricey at £21.50 for a 473ml/ 1 pint tin, but I was assured that this would cover many projects.
Acanthus Interiors
You can also order this paint online, the cheapest I've found is Kast Services - they are on Ebay and have a web store and deliver for free.
Kast Services
Having learnt my lesson with an earlier project using Annie Sloan, I decided to spend a little prep time applying wood filler to divots, in particular where the handles on the bottom drawer had rotated and scored the wood. I taped the sides for clean lines and then gave the whole piece a wee buff with a sanding sponge before starting.
I was nervous that the foam brush would waste paint, but found that it seemed to apply a nice fine coat, and there were no problems with lap marks. Zoe from Mála furniture said she completed the drawers with just one coat. I definitely don't have her technique as my first coat applied really patchy! I wasn't worried though as the ladies at Acanthus advised that this would likely be the case. The paint was super fast drying, so by the time I had finished the legs, body and drawers I could start again. I probably could have stopped at the second coat as it looked great, but I'm a 'one for luck' type gal so did 3 coats and a sneaky 4th and final coat for the top :) I struggled with the paint consistency of ASCP on previous projects- always adding either too much water or not enough. The GF milk paint on the other hand is just right, I have finally found my paint goldilocks! More than just consistency improvements though, I found GF very forgiving and easy to use for a novice like myself.
Acanthus Interiors
You can also order this paint online, the cheapest I've found is Kast Services - they are on Ebay and have a web store and deliver for free.
Kast Services
Having learnt my lesson with an earlier project using Annie Sloan, I decided to spend a little prep time applying wood filler to divots, in particular where the handles on the bottom drawer had rotated and scored the wood. I taped the sides for clean lines and then gave the whole piece a wee buff with a sanding sponge before starting.
I was nervous that the foam brush would waste paint, but found that it seemed to apply a nice fine coat, and there were no problems with lap marks. Zoe from Mála furniture said she completed the drawers with just one coat. I definitely don't have her technique as my first coat applied really patchy! I wasn't worried though as the ladies at Acanthus advised that this would likely be the case. The paint was super fast drying, so by the time I had finished the legs, body and drawers I could start again. I probably could have stopped at the second coat as it looked great, but I'm a 'one for luck' type gal so did 3 coats and a sneaky 4th and final coat for the top :) I struggled with the paint consistency of ASCP on previous projects- always adding either too much water or not enough. The GF milk paint on the other hand is just right, I have finally found my paint goldilocks! More than just consistency improvements though, I found GF very forgiving and easy to use for a novice like myself.
Dressing table painted
Whilst the paint dried, I started polishing up the handles. In a whoopsie moment, I discovered that I had been a little too enthusiastic and actually wore away the gold coloured plating, revealing the base metal beneath! I achieved a nice shine and thought the silver colour might be nicer anyway, so I set about completing the job. I decided to also polish the handles on the chest of drawers so that both pieces match. The quickest method I found is to simply use a fine grade sanding sponge - each handle took just a few minutes to polish up.
My handles for the chest of drawers were ready and so were the bottom pair for the dressing table, but it transpired that the small top ones were solid brass. Not to be deterred, I ordered up some metallic silver spray paint from Amazon for £8
Plasti-kote Brilliant Metallic Silver Spray Paint
The Amazon packaging is perfect for spray painting as it has little wings to keep the paint from spraying outside the box. To get better stability and access, I fed the screws from below the cardboard and then attached the knobs. This was a stroke of accidental genius, as it was so windy that the whole box flew across the garden at one stage, but thanks to the screws my knobs weren't smudged. I was however picking grass and mud out from the other items I was spraying at the same time!
Plasti-kote Brilliant Metallic Silver Spray Paint
The Amazon packaging is perfect for spray painting as it has little wings to keep the paint from spraying outside the box. To get better stability and access, I fed the screws from below the cardboard and then attached the knobs. This was a stroke of accidental genius, as it was so windy that the whole box flew across the garden at one stage, but thanks to the screws my knobs weren't smudged. I was however picking grass and mud out from the other items I was spraying at the same time!
I applied the topcoat that evening and again the following day. I then attached the handles and I was done - hurrah!
Finished dressing table in Persian Blue General Finishes Milk Paint
Upcycled Mid Century Modern drawers and dressing table looking splendid together
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