Milk Paint Dining Table Base

After flipping the antique dining table upside down, I could work on fixing the pedestals.

There were cracks and splinters missing out of the veneer wrapped hollow pedestals. Since I was going to paint these parts, I filled the gaps with wood putty and let it dry then sanded smooth.

I love the little parts of history one can find when working on antique furniture. Glued inside these table pedestals was very old newspaper with more glue repairs over it.

There were some wheels on the legs, but they didn’t roll well and were too small, which meant the table top sat just a little too low.

In the process of fixing this, we glued larger solid round wood pieces to the bottom of the legs, creating a bit more height to the top of the table.

After I sanded the entire piece, removing all the old finish, I mixed up the milk paint.

Milk paint comes as powder and you just mix up as much as you want to use. Basic technique is to mix equal parts of water and milk paint powder, but you can mix it thinner or thicker depending on your project.

I mixed 50/50 milk paint powder and water, then painted it onto the raw wood.

Milk paint will bond with the wood fibers. The more coats you apply the more opaque finish you’ll get.

Even though I used a really good brush to apply it, (it was just what I grabbed) I usually just use a cheapo chip brush or a brush that has natural fibers. It really doesn’t matter. It’s not the same as painting on an acrylic paint that can show brush strokes.

I feel like milk painting is the most casual form of painting there is. It lends itself to a very unique and creative finish, so applying it can be just as creative.

This is the dining table base after a couple coats of milk paint. Once it dried, it almost looked dusty or chalky.

This is the time to do any distressing… which is what I did…

Using a sanding sponge, I got it wet with water and then sanded the edges of the legs, where natural wear and tear would have occurred.

This is an antique table, and I wanted the finish to look like it was an antique finish.

The final step was to apply the finish. I love using hemp oil for furniture.

Do NOT use the hemp oil you find in a health food store! That oil has not been processed for furniture finish and will get sticky and rancid on wood.

Furniture hemp oil has been properly processed for use on wood, it is still natural and food safe, (great for wooden cutting boards!) and super easy to apply.

Hemp oil is easy to apply it too. Just brush or wipe it on, let it soak in and then wipe back the excess. Let it dry a day and then determine if it needs another coat.

It smells wonderful, sort of a nutty / tobacco leaf odor.

Hemp oil takes 30 days to fully cure, but usually after a day you can see if another coat is needed. It’s seriously, so easy and almost feels therapeutic to apply.

This is showing a close up of the milk paint dining table base with a light distressed treatment and the hemp oil finish.

I applied two coats milk paint and two coats of the hemp oil to achieve this beautiful soft matte sheen.