The Table That Ate My Ironstone

Let's talk about the table that's off to the right in this photo.

The time finally came for its makeover and it took much longer than I expected. Everything started off normally. I took the table over to my parents' home to sand away some of that navy blue paint.

I thought the wood on this piece would look so pretty with chippy white paint, so I left some of the original white paint on it and focused my attention on the navy. It only took about a half hour for the table to be ready for Milk Paint.

When I got it back to my apartment, I set about creating the chippy white look using Miss Mustard Seed's Beeswax Finish and Ironstone Milk Paint.

Ironstone was formally the closest color to a pure white in the Milk Paint line. With the arrival of Farmhouse White, it has now become a slight off-white and is an excellent choice if you want to mimic the beautiful color of antique ironstone stoneware.

The Beeswax was applied to random places on the table and I carefully painted three coats of Ironstone over top to create a deliciously chippy finish. To read more about how to achieve this look, you can read one of my older blog posts here.

Everything was going according to schedule and the table was almost finished. I had a drop-in workshop scheduled about two weeks ago, so I brought the table with me with the intention of sealing it while I was waiting for participants to come by. I opened my bottle of Tough Coat and got one side of the table covered.

Photo: Anna Alexander Photography

I was happily interrupted by my first round of workshop participants. We started Milk Painting Christmas ornaments and were having a grand 'ol time. Then, another round of customers came in. Pretty soon, there were more people in the workshop room than I had seats to accommodate, so I had the brilliant idea to use my newly sealed table for more work space. (Can you see where this is going?)

Not even ten minutes had gone by before a cup of deep and dark Flow Blue was spilled on the towel I had placed on top of my table. I quickly picked up the towel to survey the damage and sure enough, the Flow Blue had seeped through and stained my freshly finished chippy Ironstone table.

For the sake of my workshop participants, I kept my cool on the outside. You wouldn't have wanted to hear what I said to myself on the inside. Needless to say, I was really mad at myself. Even professional painters have to deal with mistakes and mishaps. If this has ever happened to you with one of your projects, you're in good company. Don't let Pinterest-perfect websites and Instagram feeds fool you. People are just people and we all make mistakes.

I wound up having to cart the table home in The Marshmallow for repairs. After another round of Tough Coat, Beeswax, and Ironstone, my table was back to its beautiful chippy self.

I'm calling it "the table that ate all my Ironstone" because I used a ridiculous amount of Ironstone Milk Paint to paint it twice - once for full coverage and a second time to cover the Flow Blue spill.

It's worth it though. This table has the prettiest shape and the perfect mix of chippy and full coverage.

I just love the shape of the sides and how the inside sweeps in. It's so curvy!

The Flow Blue incident actually created a lot of texture on the top and the sides, which gives the appearance that this table has layers and layers of old white paint on it. (See how I'm looking at the positive?)

This pretty piece is for sale at Painted Table Designs for $325 if you're interested. In the meantime, I'll be placing an order to replenish my Ironstone Milk Paint!