DIY Chippy MANTEL
Deck your home this fall with a vintage-inspired paint job on a mantel.
Mantels don’t have to be connected to working fireplaces to be a decorating opportunity in your home. Sweet Pickins Milk Paint is our 2020 paint sponsor, and milk paint is the perfect type of paint to use on a furniture upcycle. Not only is it nontoxic and environmentally-friendly, but it’s also easy to manipulate into looking old and chippy.
“A true milk paint like ours is the only type of paint on the market that will naturally chip and flake off as it resists some surfaces, creating the perfect chippy and crackle finish,” says Sausha Khoundet, owner of Sweet Pickins Milk Paint. There are a variety of finishes you can pick for your milk paint that will enhance that old look or protect the paint from further chipping. Here’s how to get this crackle finish on a mantel, or any other piece of furniture.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
• Finished mantel (this mantel was built new)
• 120-grit sandpaper
• Wood stain (optional; used here: Minwax)
• Spray on clear finish (used here: RustOleum Clear Enamel)
• Milk paint (used here: Sweet Pickins Milk Paint in Flour Sack)
• Paintbrush
• Finish of choice (used here: Sweet Pickins Oil Wax in Clear)
WHAT YOU’LL DO:
1. First, you’ll need a mantel. Because you’re creating an old and chippy look, you don’t need a vintage piece—Sausha made this mantel with new pine wood. 2. If your mantel is new, lightly sand it to get rid of any potential splinters. Sausha also decided to stain the mantel before painting it. “We wanted to see a dark finish when our milk paint chipped,” she says. If you do stain the piece, make sure it dries completely.
3. To make the milk paint look chippy, you don’t want it to stick to the wood very well. “We created a ‘resist’ so that the milk paint wouldn’t adhere in certain spots,” Sausha says. To do this, add a light layer of clear finish to the mantel—Sausha recommends using a spray-on finish. Don’t cover the entire piece, but simply add a “dusting” of the clear coat.
4. While the clear coat is drying, follow the package instructions to mix up the milk paint.
5. Brush or spray the milk paint onto the mantel and let it dry. As it dries, you’ll see it start to resist the areas where the clear coat is.
6. Once the piece is fully dry, lightly sand the mantel with fine-grit sandpaper to remove any loose paint. Then wipe the piece down with a cloth to remove remaining dust.
7. Seal the piece with your finish of choice. Sausha used her Sweet Pickins Oil Wax here, but Sweet Pickins also offers a variety of other nontoxic finish options. “You can even choose a sealer with a dark pigment in it to really highlight all that crackle goodness,” she says.