My tips on using milk paint and how to get a non chippy look

Earlier this week I posted about how I used milk paint to completely transform a dated china hutch in my living room.  I used Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint to do the job.  This was my first time using milk paint and I didn't know what to expect when I first started it.  Of course I did as much research as I could but when you actually do it, you learn a lot.  In this post I'm going talk about some of the things I learned when I painted my china cabinet, and what you should and shouldn't do to achieve that non chippy look with milk paint.

China Cabinet Makeover with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint

This post has been a long time coming.  After all of the Christmas festivities, I made it a goal for the New Year to paint this 80's looking oak china cabinet we've had in our living room for the past three years.  It was time for a much needed paint makeover.  I didn't want to do a latex paint and have it look really glossy.  I wanted it to look like I spent a lot of money on it and wanted to make a statement with this piece.  This china cabinet has some really good bones, is made from solid wood, and has really beautiful antique brass glass leaded windows and shelves.  After some research I came across this stuff called milk paint.  Milk paint is normally known for having that chippy look, I knew I didn't want the chippy look on this china cabinet. I saw pictures of milk paint where it was smooth, not chippy, and it looked gorgeous.  So that's when I decided to use Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint to do the job. 

PicBoxPro Fireplace Mantel Update

This post is sponsored by PicBoxPro where I received free product in exchange for a review.  All opinions are 100% mine.

I was really excited that we got our first official family pictures taken this last fall by the talented o get our  McKell Morgan because I knew this time was going to be different.  I was going to get them printed and replace all of our old family pictures with the new ones.  If money wasn't an issue, I would have loved to get a nice canvas print of our family and put it above our fireplace mantel to make a big statement.  After investigating and comparison shopping a 30X30 canvas print was going to cost me up to $110 at Costco!  Well, I needed to feed my family this month, so that wasn't going to work.  I'm happy to announce that I found a more cost effective way of getting that big statement canvas print of my family, say hello to PicBoxPro. 

PicBoxPro is not your ordinary online wrapped canvas print ordering store.  They're a small and local business who calls Provo, Utah their home.  I'm all about supporting small businesses. PicBoxPro was born to make creating and ordering amazing canvas prints as easy and painless as possible. Traditionally high quality gallery wrapped canvas prints have been too expensive. They're changing that. Their passion is creating masterpieces that are affordable to everyone.

What sets PicBoxPro apart is their quality, attention to small details, and their awesome customer service.  Ordering your wrapped canvas was easy. They have a built in program in their website where you select your photos, select your canvas size, and you can move, edit, add text and graphics to totally customized your wrapped canvas.  You can preview your purchase before you add it to your cart, which made it really helpful because I made several changes to my pictures.  

After I placed my order, I received a phone call from PicBoxPro.  They told me that during my ordering process, I didn't move the picture high enough on the canvas, so the very top part of the canvas where it folds over, was showing white.  I didn't catch that during the ordering process, so they called to let me know, and asked if I wanted them to fix it!  I was so touched that they would call me to double check.  

When I received my canvas it was two days after I ordered it, now that's what I call fast service! I opened it up, and fell in love.  It looked great, the colors were vibrant, and the canvas was thick.  I turned it over and saw that my canvas had a black dust cover, installed sawtooth hanger, and felt bumpers!  It was all ready to be hung.  Get this, the same 30 X 30 size print I was eyeing at Costco, cost $20 cheaper at PicBoxPro AND Costco didn't include all of the extras in the back like PicBoxPro does!    

I love how my 30 X 30 wrapped canvas makes that big statement I wanted to make in our family room.   

One helpful tip when creating your wrapped canvas.  I found certain sizes didn't work well with horizontal pictures.  I was wanting to order the 21 X 36 size wrapped canvas and I had to zoom in the picture a lot to get the picture to fit and cover on all of the sides.  If I didn't zoom in, then the wrapped sides would be shown white because the picture wasn't wide enough to cover the sides.  I hope this makes sense.  After playing around, I found the 30 X 30 size was going to fit my horizontal picture a lot more comfortably.  Rule of thumb, make sure to play around with the different canvas sizes, some might be better for vertical or horizontal pictures.

DIY Painted and Gold Dipped End Table Makeover

I've made it my mission to decorate my living room on a TIGHT budget.  We've lived in our home almost three years and I'm finally getting around to getting to this much neglected space.  I'm making slow progress.  I added a new little piece of furniture, a small accent table.  This console table was a $3 D.I. find and knew that this small table would be a great addition next to my sofa or an antique chair.  With a little DIY, work, patience, and a lot of coats of primer and paint, I was able to turn this little end table from sad to rad!

DIY Painted Frame Mat

One obsession I have is art. I don't know why I have this desire, but I think it would be so awesome to own pieces of original art in my home.  Of course, I don't have the budget to do so, so to make due, I use what I have and try to update them to make them look awesome.

Living Room Decorating Ideas Phase 1: A Commitment and Plan

I love interior design. I secretly wish I would have become an interior designer.  Let's just throw it out there.  Yes, I have expensive taste.  I always tend to draw towards the stuff that's the most expensive.  Can any of you can relate?  Like many of you reading this, I love high end design but don't have a high end budget.