I fell in love with the texture of this little chest of drawers.

In its previous dark stain, you couldn’t really see the texture though. I decided to paint the entire thing in a coat of Typewriter which just happens to be Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint color of the month for October.  (Tweet/instagram/pin/post/share your Typewriter painted pieces using hashtag #mmsmilkpaintcolorofthemonth)

Buuut I didn’t stop at Typewriter because that wasn’t very different from where the dresser started.  I went over it in a coat of mustard seed yellow.

I painted the coat lightly and wiped off any excess paint allowing the yellow to settle in the crevices and the black texture to pop creating an alligator effect.

This was a fun one to paint.  The texture of the previous finish really did all the work in creating the antique effect.  I applied a top coat of hemp oil and slightly distressed it further revealing more of the typewriter base coat.

I finished it off with shiny white ceramic knobs for a bit of a farmhouse feel.

The size of this chest seems perfect for a kid’s room.  The drawers aren’t too wide but are nice and deep.  Plus I lined them with maps!

Turns out the leftover atlas pages from our wedding place settings were cut to just the right size to fit 3 in each drawer snugly.

It is headed to Serendipity this afternoon…along with lots of other inventory.  The milk paint mixers are in.  You’ve got to try them for mixing a nice, consistent paint.  I’ll show you how next Saturday at our free milk paint demo!

In the meantime, we’re getting ready for Sunday’s Clover Market.  Let’s just hope this rain goes away!

Before you go, I could use your advice.  I have a new little workshop space that I’m pretty smitten with. Last week, I instagrammed my newly organized paint brushes. Swoon.

Possibly more exciting though is that once I finish painting a piece, I can just turn it around, stage and snap pictures like this.  Except not quite like this.

I am trying to decide how to “decorate” the background so it looks less workshop-y and industrial.  I considered staining the raw wood with milk paint, of course.  Or hanging fabric or paper.  Maybe doors or reclaimed wood planking.  But my favorite idea is to layer all of those things so I can switch out the background according to what I’m staging.  Think paint, fabric and then wood.

Tell me, what would you do?  I’d love to hear from you.