Sally and the Perfect Rustic Red

My boyfriend's family was cleaning out their basement and they called me to see if I wanted anything. To people like me, that basically means it's Christmas in October! I inherited an adorable wooden cart, a bookshelf, and a good sized maple mirror. When you've only got 800 square feet of space to live and work in, you need to be strategic about the types of projects you work on and how many you can store at a time. Currently, I have a dry sink that's waiting in the wings to be sanded and repaired, and a bunch of finished projects that need to find new homes including a hutch cabinet, wooden arm chair, and 2 antique rocking chairs. (Did I mention that my apartment has AMAZING closet space?) Needless to say, I picked the mirror to work on first and stashed the rest are in the basement of my parents' house. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) I've got big plans for this gal! She's a perfect specimen to try out a new brand of milk paint I discovered yesterday - General Finishes Milk Paint. To date, I've only used 2 types of paint for my furniture projects, Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint and Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint. Part of me feels like I'm cheating on my 'ol reliables, but it's good to branch out and try something new!

What I've found so far is that General Finishes is a perfect combination of both of these types of paint. It has the old world feel of milk paint but the coverage and smoothness of chalk paint. And, let's be honest...if you're a girl on a budget like me, most thing boil down to one thing - PRICE. A pint of American Finishes Milk Paint goes for $16.50 at my local supplier. A quart of Miss Mustard Seed will run you $22 and you have to mix it yourself. A quart of Annie Sloan goes for $34.95 at my local stockist. Cha-ching! Ok...paint rant complete. I couldn't separate the mirror from the frame, so I decided to leave it attached. I put newspaper on the mirror and slid it underneath the frame to protect it. Using painter's tape, I taped it down to keep it in place while I painted.

And now for the color. Look at that red!

This is the stuff of country barns in Vermont, apples in a bushel basket, school houses, and all things American. It's the PERFECT rustic red! Let's see how it goes on.

The best part about using a thicker paint like this is that you don't have to do much prep work at all to your surface. My prep work consisted of wiping the dust off with a cloth. That's it! If I was going to use Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint, I would have sanded the wood a bit to rough it up. It was pretty smooth, which would have made it difficult for the paint to bond. This was another confirmation that I chose the right paint for my project. Now comes the fun part - keeping my furry roommate away while it dries. He did pretty well when all was said and done - only one spot of paint on his tail :)

The first coat covered really well. The manufacturer recommends you wait 2 hours for it to dry. I found that it was dry to the touch after just 30 minutes. That's good news when you have a curious cat with a short attention span. In between coats, I put my paint brush in a plastic Ziploc baggie to keep it from drying out.

I flipped the mirror over and did the back. I wanted a clean line where the frame met the back of the mirror, so I made sure to go as carefully around the edges as I could.

As the back was drying, I started thinking of a good name for this mirror. It has classic traditional lines to it and the color is so "all American" that I decided to name her Sally. The name reminds me of a hometown girl with pigtails, pearls, and bobby socks. Perfect! After Sally's 2 coats were dry, I rejoiced slightly. The last project I worked on took 4 coats and this was completely covered with half the amount. [Squeal] Not to mention the color was gorgeous! As a topcoat, I went for Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Wax. It's buttery soft and super easy to apply. Just apply with a brush

buff with a soft cloth, and boo-yah...sealed and done!

Isn't she cute?

To add to her charm, I just learned that she was part of my boyfriend's childhood bedroom set. That makes it even harder to decide whether I'm going to keep or sell her. Decisions, decisions...