Vintage Appeal

Most before and after's go something like this...peeling and primitive to pretty and pristine.  I just "changed" it up a bit.

After: Before:

Why yes, that would be a princess castle in the background, wouldn't it?  Guilty as charged.

Before: After:

I want to add a vintage flair to Operation Boy/Girl Bedroom and methodically decided to start with the changing table.  And by that I mean I ran across a product called 'Milk Paint' completely by accident, had to try it and the changing table fell victim because it was easier to paint than the armoire.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the end product.  I have gone from loving it to hating it to feeling just okay about it in the past 24 hours.  Despite my urge to run out and by a gallon of white paint, I have vowed to give it some time and see how it looks in the room when the other decor comes together before I repaint it.

Milk Paint creates a vintage, distressed look without the need to sand, white wash or "prep" your piece of furniture.  You mix colored powder with water to create a milky paint as it's name suggests.  Without having used it before, I probably should have started with a chair or an end table or something else a bit less dramatic, as it does take some getting used to.  It's a completely different look than latex paint and if you're type a like myself, the brush strokes and general un-eveness are enough to drive a girl crazy.   But once you give up trying to create a perfectly distressed (is there such a thing?) look and just go with it, it's really quite fun.  Check out this tutorial for some inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, here are a few boards I've created while dreaming up the new room: