White furniture never goes out of style. It takes dark, dreary spaces and turns them bright and airy. This week’s Before + After features this tutorial from Carrie at Thirty Eighth Street, transforming a large armoire into a piece of elegance using General Finishes Milk Paint in Snow White. For those of you that are unfamiliar with General Finishes paint, it is an acrylic, water-based paint that is not a true milk paint.
The Before
General Finishes paints differ from chalk-type paints in that they are not chalky and do not dry matte. Instead, this paint dries down smooth to the touch and has a flat, eggshell finish.
The General Finishes products Carrie used are:
- General Finishes Milk Paint in Snow White
- High Performance Top Coat in Flat
To start, Carrie prepped the armoire by cleaning the surface using a 50/50 mix of water and denatured alcohol, a product that can be found at any hardware store. This ensures that there’s no old residue that will interfere with the paint. Afterwards, Carrie lightly sanded the piece to help give the surface some “grit”. This helps to make sure the paint will adhere well. This is especially important for pieces that are very shiny!
It’s very typical when working with any white colored paints that it will take multiple coats– much more than when working with a color that has pigment. However, General Finishes paints have great coverage and it took Carrie just 2.5 coats of paint!
The armoire had intricate scroll-work on the doors, so Carrie distressed these areas to bring out the detail. There are many ways to distress pieces, the most typical by using sandpaper. Carrie discusses how she distressed this piece in her tutorial.
General Finishes Milk Paints are self-sealing, meaning they don’t necessarily need a topcoat to protect the paint once it has cured. However, pieces that will see every day wear and use should definitely be top coated. To top coat General Finishes paints, their polyurethanes are one of the easiest to use! For this armoire, Carrie used the High Performance Top Coat in Flat.
Isn’t this piece just gorgeous? Snow White really turned this piece into a stunner!
Feeling inspired? Get started today!
Need some additional guidance? Take one of our workshops to learn about application, distressing, and waxing!
Don’t want to do the work yourself? We also offer custom painting!
