Our Dining Table Using Antique Legs

I’m so glad to be back in action on the blog this week. I took a week long rest from the blog and most of the social media outlets as well. It wasn’t intentional but done more from stress than anything. I think it was one of the best things I’ve done in a long time! I love this blog and I love you all but life can get a little overwhelming at times. Between being a wife, mom, blogger and house guest host down time is a must. I lose sight of that on a regular basis and enviably get burned out. I;m sorry for that. I probably should have given you all a heads up. The great news, I’m back and really excited what this upcoming fall season will bring. I’m already burning pumpkin candles and dreaming of hayrides over here.

Today I wanted to talk a little about our dining room table that we built a couple months ago. In the process of finishing and sharing all the other projects around here this one completely slipped through the cracks. This was one of the most simple pieces of furniture that we’ve built. We just made a simple planked top our of 1×10’s and 1×8’s. We used our Kreg Jig to do so. It’s one of the tools that we use the most. The legs are real antique legs that we found while thrifting. The table top was in such poor condition that it was not salvageable. The legs however, were perfect! They already have a nice color to them but I wanted a stained top so I decided to paint the legs. I wanted the legs to look like I had not do anything to them so after much research I decided to go with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint. I chose the color Farmhouse White. It’s a warm, clean white. I love that milk paint required minimal prep and has a gorgeous chip effect that can be mistaken for real weathered chipping. You can read more about it here.

You can read up on all of the instructions on mixing your milk paint on Miss Mustard Seed’s website. It’s very simple and I love the fact that it’s odorless. I was able to paint the table in the dining room without a paint smell sticking around.

Here is the base of the table after just one coat of the milk paint. I did about three coats of paint. Each coat dries quickly. It probably taken less coats had I chosen to cover the brown stain with a darker paint color. After the paint has had time to dry it will naturally start to chip and crack on its own.

I then took a flat scraping tool and with very little pressure went over the legs. The paint should flake off easily. The paint will not crack and chip off everywhere and you really don’t want it too. Don’t apply so much pressure that the took starts to scratch the furniture piece. After the paint had chipped off where it was going to chip, I applies a coat of furniture wax to seal the table.

I love the texture it adds to the space. I wanted to preserve the vintage feel of the legs and I think the Milk Paint did just that! I know some will say to never paint antiques but I say go for what you will love and enjoy. No antique is worth holding onto unless you love it!

I’ve since painted a few other pieces with milk paint and I can’t wait to try out some different colors. I’ll be sure to share when I do! I hope you all have a great week and I hope you’ll join me tomorrow when I reveal our newest addition to our family room!