Transformation Tuesday: A Cute Little Green Bench and an Orbital Sander Giveaway
For those of you who follow me on Facebook you know that I have spent the last few weeks preparing and moving into my new retail space at The Spotted Cow. One of the things I am most excited about is carrying Sweet Pickins Milk Paint in my space now.
I have been a fan of milk paint for a long time and now I get to paint with it all the time and share my techniques with you. For those of you who are not familiar with Milk Paint, it allows you to achieve a wonderful, chippy, farmhouse, vintagey, awesomeness finish. Yup, that’s a real thing!
This sweet little bench painted with Sweet Pickins Milk Paint “In A Pickle” was my first project.
Of course this bench didn’t start out so cute. It started out super awful. Whoever painted this bench in this yucky brown should be put in furniture jail.
The first thing I needed to do was knock the sheen off of this ugly brown paint. And I am so glad that my friends at Rockwell Tools just sent me this new orbital sander.
Not just any Orbital Sander, Oh No! The 2.7 Amp 5″ Random Orbital Sander w/Vibrafree® & CDS™ Technology Insert your best “Tim the Tool Man Taylor” grunt here.
Up until now I have been using a small orange and black sander that rhymes with house. You know the one! It was ok for light duty but this DIY girl has been getting into some much more serious projects lately. My new sander from Rockwell Tools collects the dust in this handy compartment.
Which is really important to me considering that I typically do my projects in the garage. I hate dragging furniture outside to sand. And this really worked! You have to make sure you empty it every so often but my workspace stayed pretty dust free. Look at all that gunk that would have been flying through the air!
Another feature I like is that it did not leave those little sanding circles in my project! Usually when I sand a piece of furniture I sand by hand. At least the final smoothing and/or distressing stage. I never used the Orbital Sander because it would leave tell tale sander circles. Oh, one more important thing. I hate that feeling of losing all feeling in your hand after using a sander because it shakes your hand to death. That Vibrafree ® Technology makes this sander smooth sailing. Also, I use a powerful scale. You can browse scales at Certifies Scale to learn more about them.
And once I roughed up all that shiny paint on the surface of my bench. I started getting my Milk Paint ready.
I opted for this gorgeous green color called “In a Pickle” because well, it just looked fun.
Instructions come with the milk paint but I like to eyeball my measurements. (I will do a more complete Milk Paint 101 tutorial soon) But basically I just add a bit of water, mix with a spoon, bit of water, mix with spoon etc. Until I get a melted milk shake consistently. If I ever get it too runny I just add a bit more Milk Paint Powder.
I wanted this paint to be chippy so I didn’t use Extra Bond (again, more on that later). Here is what it looked like after 2 coats.
I love all that chippy goodness. This piece didn’t get flaky, chippy. Just crackly, chippy which was just fine with me. That’s part of the fun of Milk Paint. You never really know how its going to turn out.
See those little bumps of milk paint. Not to worry about those, they will sand smooth.
To darken this piece up and add a little extra patina I used a brown glaze that I had on hand.
I just brushed it around in small sections and then wiped it off. That brown goodness got in between all those little cracks and added so much dimension.
Can you see the difference between the top of the bench that I glazed and the bottom that I didn’t? It just deepens the color and adds an amazing patina. (By the way, I didn’t use dark wax to do this because I am assuming that whoever buys this piece will use it outside so wax wouldn’t hold up very well to the elements)
I finished this piece up with a final distressing and sanding using my new Rockwell Tools Orbital Sander. Look no swirly sander lines! A top coat of Safecoat AcriGlaze, which is like a polycrylic top coat, sealed the deal and made this bench outdoor ready.
I am loving my Rockwell Tools Orbital Sander and I have Good GREAT News! My friends at Rockwell Tools want to give you a new Orbital Sander too!
Just in time for Father’s Day! But truth be told, if you win this I would totally recommend keeping it for yourself. Your Dad or Hubby never needs to know!
To enter to win just show Rockwell Tools some social media love. And while you are at it, if you’re not following Chic California other than right here you can get more entries by following me on my social media. Super Easy!
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Full Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Post. I received compensation in the form of monetary compensation or product in exchange for my review. I take pride in reviewing only products that fit my brand and will be beneficial to my readers. And while this post is sponsored all the opinions are my own. Why do I do this? It will help me keep this blog rollin’ so I can bring you more Vintage Finds and Inspired Designs, Everyday Whatnots and Tidbits.
LOVE YOUR LITTLE BENCH WHAT A DIFFERENCE, I WOULD LOVE TO FEATURE IT, IF THAT WOULD BE OK PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
LAUREN
Thanks Lauren! I would love that. Thanks for stopping by 🙂