PAINTING A HANDMADE QUILT RACK

 

When my Dad retired, he fiddled with wood working.  I think it was his 'therapy' to create wood crafted items for all of us.  I am so glad that he gave me this gift of the quilt rack.
 

This quilt rack was very austere, almost Amish looking. I   lived with the dark stain for about 15 years. 

 

Even though I love the punches of color that the quilts added to that side of the room, the dark stain didn't fit in with my shabby look.

A quick fix to display my treasured quilts was an easy remedy.  Chalk Paint!!!!

 

The chalk paint companies are now coming out with vintage or pastel shades.  This might be a good reason to try a new chalk paint.

 

This is a new French lime paint.  I took this picture when I was at the antique mall with my cell phone.  Notice how soothing these colors are to the eye?  Lime paint works pretty much the same way the chalk paint does.  I cannot say that I have used this yet, but I love these shades.

 

At first, I was going to go with white chalk paint, but that seemed a bit too safe.

 I really like the vintage muted light green color that was on an old window frame that I had.

I know that if I mixed two chalk paint colors, such as Old White and Antibes Green, I could come up with a similar color.  I think more research must be done.

Here is the before picture of the quilt rack. 

So, even though it is freezing outside, I bundled up and headed out to the garage to sand the quilt rack.

Using the mouse sander, it took about one hour to sand the frame.

I noticed this joint with the putty filled holes.  Those  holes will only add to the character after it is painted.

So after I got the girls off to school today, I ran my errands and rewarded myself with a trip to the  antique mall.

I showed one of the store clerks the picture of the shabby green window on my cell phone.  I inquired about finding the closest color match from the frame to paint the quilt stand.

She showed me a color that was a bit too strong so I picked up a white paint to mix with it to tone the green down.

 Then, I walked off by myself and came upon the new European colors in the Miss Mustard Seed (MMS) line.  And there it was.....Layla's Mint.  In the past, I never wanted to try this type of milk paint(similar to chalk).  It comes in dry form and you need to mix it with water.  Even though I had used chalk paints from the can that were already blended, I still had some apprehension.

 Besides being so close to the color I wanted, I loved the packaging.(I am so easily swayed.)

I was ready for a challenge.  After watching videos about mixing up MMS'd milk paint, I was convinced that this would be a success.  Instead of using a blender to mix the paint and water, I used my emersion blender.  Before blending the paint, I had a scalding pot of water and Dawn detergent ready to clean the blender.  It cleaned up easily.

It worked beautifully.  I was hooked!!!

I poured the mixture into a clean pickle jar and labeled it with my handy labeler.

This next picture shows one coat of paint on the quilt rack.

This paint dries very quickly.  However, I didn't have more time to work on the project, so I came back to it the next day.

The next day, I sanded the entire piece with a very fine sand paper sheet.

A second coat was applied to the rack.

Then, the piece was sanded again.

I really liked the imperfections of the piece showing through.

Then a coat of clear wax was applied.  Once buffed, running your hand over a rung on the piece felt like butter.  Smooth as silk.

I placed the three quilts back on the frame.

 I am so happy with the finished quilt rack. The milk paint really softened the piece.  It really compliments the old window frame now.

When I set the window frame and flowers in the graniteware and placed them in front of the quilt frame, I envisioned this set up to be placed in front of the fireplace this upcoming spring when we are finished using the fireplace.

 WELL, let me tell you, I'm sold on Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint!!!!  Find a store that carries her painting products and go see for yourself today.  She has many colors available in her stock list.