I have a small China cabinet that sits in my Livingroom holding tiny but important objects and I wanted to update it a bit. It was a Facebook marketplace find and I so happy with the scale, and the fretwork detail but I really am not digging the dark reddish wood finish.
I was watching one of the latest Farmhouse Living YouTube videos and I saw Michelle’s dining room China cabinet and I was immediately grabbed by the beautiful gray blue and I knew that was the color I needed to transform my china cabinet. Here you can see the cabinet below – also just a side note, I love how she has it styled below with all white accessories inside. Mine won’t look quite so chic as I plan for my cabinet to hold small sentimental items that would get lost and look cluttered on built-in shelves but this is such a beautiful look.
I inquired about the color but she didn’t know, it was just what had come on her China cabinet. From there I set off on a little quest to find the perfect color. For starters I knew that I wanted to use a milk paint because of its chippy, matte finish. I did want some distressing and having used a few milk paints in the past that did not chip at all I wanted to try a new line.
I had come across Shackteau Interiors milk paint on YouTube, the video featuring a dresser being painted in almost the exact color I was looking for ( Shackteau Interiors is in no way sponsoring this content and all products were purchased by me). Knowing that I could mix a few colors to achieve my perfect shade I headed over to Etsy and clicked through all of their color offerings.
I purchased the 6oz envelope of Coastal Gray and a 2oz envelope of Blue Moon. I used the entire envelope of Coastal Gray and approximately a tablespoon of Blue Moon. This took an already pretty gray with a hint of blue into a deeper gray blue.
Before I painted my China cabinet I addressed the finish of the cabinet. I didn’t want a very red wood stain poking out from under the distressed blue milk paint, I just didn’t think that was going to be a great look. So I went ahead and did a translucent black glaze over the entire piece. This just darkened up the wood a bit helping it not to look so red.
I mentioned that I have had interesting luck with milk paint as I’ve never had any chip for me before. I wanted to make sure that I at least got a bit of natural distressing on this piece so I grabbed some coconut oil and a cloth and rubbed a tiny bit of coconut oil along edges of the piece. I did this very sparingly but I did want to make sure that I at least had wood showing through on those areas. I also gave my kids a very important job – I told them to go rub their hands on the china cabinet.
This was a tip my mom had given me when I painted my last milk paint piece and had no chipping. She said that the piece was probably too clean and that it needed some oils to help repel the paint. I applied that paint with a brush and pretty soon after it dried paint began to flake in certain areas. The areas where I had applied the coconut oil I rubbed that flaking paint and coconut oil off with a rag. I had one area on the side of the cabinet that got a little carried away and a huge chunk of paint peeled off and I was able to just apply a bit more paint in this area and with the second coat a lesser amount peeled off.
I am really pleased at how user friendly this milk paint was. I’m also super impressed with the colors. The colors have a lot of depth to them – I’ve seen a lot of furniture paint and some just look pretty one note.
Lastly I waxed the China cabinet with a clear wax to seal it and stop the chipping process. It looks so beautiful with its blue gray makeover. If you have a furniture piece that needs a bit of sprucing up I encourage you to try Shackteau Interiors milk paint.
Thank you for stopping by, let me know if you are making over furniture today!
