How-to Create the Chippy-Look on Raw Timber & on Varnished Wood Furniture — Two Fun Projects!

Chippy Look Number One: A Varnished Timber Table with Metal Legs

This table has good lines to start with. 

It's a quality piece that has spent its life easily tucked away into a rarely used room. 

Tables of this size, shape and style are incredibly useful. They serve as great entryway pieces or bedside tables, they tuck into corners as well as onto short awkward walls or between chairs. 

They can be used for anything from holding lamps and books to — well how cute would this look in a laundry room or toilet? 

This one just needed a lift and a lighten...and a whole lot of chippy goodness!

BEFORE: Metal and timber hall table

Time to bring on the Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in the creamy, luscious colour, Marzipan.

On pieces like this, working from the bottom up is often the way to go. The curvy legs with all those twists and turns were going to be the greatest challenge. The table was flipped onto its top and after painting most of it with the Small Paint Brush to start, I went back over and into the tight spots with an Artist Brush that you can find in our online shop. They are quite useful and handy for fine work like this and make the job a great deal easier.

Work in Progress: Painting the metal legs to get a chippy finish with MMS Milk Paint in Marzipan

I knew I would get chipping on the legs which was exactly what I was after. They are metal, and the chipping wasn't guaranteed, I think after working with the paint long enough you can sometimes predict....sometimes! Or I just got lucky?!!

The base is painted but sneaky spots always appear!

It was a crazy day of painting in the studio with a general theme of chippy finishes, white or near white upstyling with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint!  There's the hall table on the left, looking like a solid finish, but getting started on chippifying...

A busy day of painting with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint — hall table on left

Painting the timber table top was last as it is a small, flat surface and super easy to paint. It held onto the MMS Milk Paint pretty well until I ran a bit of fine-grade sandpaper over the top to pull off the paint and have chippy on the timber as well. To do this, you do not need to sand hard, instead gently drag sandpaper over the surface once or twice in the same direction and it should do the job.

Once the top was perfectly chipped, the gorgeous Maison au Restaurant Stencil was added using  our medium Stencil Brush and Lumiere Metallic Paint in Pewter mixed with Rub-n-Buff for a two-tone effect. 

Find Metallic Paint, Rub-n-Buff and the gorgeous Maison au Restaurant Stencil ($30.95) in our online shop

When dried, the stencil was lightly sanded back so it was a bit aged, before sealing the entire table with Miss Mustard Seed's Tough Coat Sealer.

Sealing with MMSMP Tough Coat Sealer for a super tough satin finish, $36 in the online shop

A beautiful chippy finish with stencil detail

Looking lovely and refreshed with some serious Maison style!

Chippy leg detail with MMSMilkPaint in the colour Marzipan

Distressed and aged and sealed with MMSMP Tough Coat Sealer for a scrubbable sealed finish

Perfectly chippy finish on the metal leg base happened on its own...the top needed a bit of encouragement!

All dressed up and ready to go! Isn't she gorgeous? She's in search of her new forever home. Details below.

Click here to visit frou•gal and do some shopping or just be inspired

Now for sale you can enquire here or find her listed on the site www.frougal.com.au under the South Australia heading. 

Frou•gal is an exclusive online boutique filled with beautiful vintage furniture that has been restyled using top-of-the-line products and techniques by carefully selected industry experts. 

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Chippy Look Number Two: A Raw Timber Footstool Goes Shabby Chic

This is a great example of how easy is to create a chippy look on nearly any surface. My lovely Workshop client took this gorgeous raw pine footstool and made a masterpiece!

BEFORE: Painting a raw timber footstool into a masterpiece

MMSMP Workshop getting started on our footstools

The lovely Miss T painted the raw timber with MMS Milk Paint in Curio to stain the raw pine into a rich shade of walnut.

Once the footstool dried she heavily rubbed the MMS Wax Puck over the entire surface before painting it with Milk Paint in the colour, Linen. The white marks on the brown are where the wax was rubbed leaving a resist for the next coat of paint. As she paints the Linen colour, it looks quite rough and messy...that's OK! It will get better. Once dried, sand lightly to your liking and seal for a perfect finish! 

DURING: the footstool in it's rough stage, after the wax puck, second coat being applied

A beautiful result! Perfectly chipped and aged — all from new clear pine.  And this is her very first chippy-finish project all taking place at our Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint Workshop.

Please let me know if you have any questions on how to achieve these looks.  I'm here to help. xx


It's all here...for the love...
Sada