As you can see from the nice green lawn in these photos, this project was completed before the big blizzard buried us under three feet of snow last weekend. (Our street at home in Ashburn was FINALLY plowed Tuesday night. However, I don’t think we will see our lawn again until June!)
This is a custom coffee table I constructed from pallet wood and painted with Real Milk Paint, the environmentally-friendly, easy-to-mix milk paint we carry at our shop, All Things New Again in Leesburg, VA. The table has a beachy look to it so we thought this was a good week to share it.
Who else would rather be at the beach right instead of surrounded by all of this snow?
Here’s a link to a similar pallet wood table I built last year. I painted the first table navy blue and wrapped the legs with jute twine to give it a nautical look. Our customer saw the first table at his friend’s house and liked it so much he contacted us to create one for him. He provided us with the dimensions needed to fit his space and picked the color.
These custom-built tables are some of my favorite projects to work on. I enjoy being able to bring to life our customers’ visions for exactly what they want in their homes.
I started by constructing the frame with lumber then cut the reclaimed pallet wood to fit the tabletop. The pallet wood on the original nautical table had been sitting out back for quite some time and had weathered nicely. I needed to pick up a new batch of pallets for this table. The boards did not have that timeworn look when I found them, but it is an easy effect to create with paint.
I combine two techniques—color wash and dry brush—to instantly “weather” any piece of wood. These techniques look especially nice on rougher pallet wood. We teach our students how to create this look in our Learn How to Paint Furniture class held the first Sunday of every month. The next class is coming up on Sunday, February 7. You can sign up right here on our NEW ONLINE STORE.
We are pleased to announce a NEW CLASS we are offering at All Things New Again on Sunday, February 21. Introduction to Real Milk Paint provides instruction and practice creating different looks with milk paint, one of the oldest forms of paint. You can also sign up for this new class right here on our NEW ONLINE STORE.
I used Real Milk Paint to create the beachy blue color on my pallet wood table.
Real Milk Paint comes in more than 50 vivid colors straight out of the can. You just mix the paint powder with water in a 1:1 ratio and you are ready to go. (If you can make chocolate milk, you can make milk paint. It’s that easy.) You can also blend colors together to create new colors or add white to create an unlimited number of shades of each color.
The possibilities are endless.
We always say choosing the color is the hardest part of any paint project—because all of the colors are so nice.
Real Milk Paint’s website provides the “formula” for custom mixing the paint to create different shades of their colors. They take the guesswork out of custom mixing so you can easily create the perfect shade of color for your project.
Our customer looked on the Real Milk Paint website and chose a mix of Aqua and Soft White for the table frame. It was a great choice!
Aqua is a strong turquoise blue. Here it is straight from the can on a chair Courtney painted last summer.
I mixed the Aqua and Soft White together in a 1:1 ratio to soften the blue and give the table the beachy look our customer wanted. Here’s a closeup of the new custom color.
I sealed the paint with Real Milk Paint’s Low Sheen Burnishing Paste to protect the table.
Finally, I finished the project by wrapping the legs with the jute twine like we did with the original.
Here’s the finished table (and my lawn!) again.
I miss my lawn, but I’m very happy that our customer liked the table so much.
And I’m glad he picked it up before the blizzard!
~ Dave
