Milk Paint Revisited

I have had some great response to the Jelly cupboard from you here, Facebook and from my friends and family.  I have a couple of things to add to the last post that have come up. 

Heather asked to see some close up pics of the cupboard for a look at the grain.  I think that’s one of the great things about milk paint is that it still lets you see some of the grain. So Heather here you go I hope it helps making the decision on using milk paint. 

Here is a look at the grain running across top of the door.  You can also see the dowels that are used to hold the half lap joint together. 

 

 

 

 

Here is a shot of one of the knots on the side.  I would imagine you could add another coat and cover up the grain and knots if that’s what you are looking for.

 

 

 

 

 

Okay part two:

I talked with Anne the President over at The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company about some of the things I mentioned in the last post about milk paint and she gave me a few pointers on the milk paint to make it smoother and easier to paint.

Here is an excerpt from the email that she sent me the other day:

Milk paint really is a rustic, crude, lumpy old fashioned paint. Make sure to let it sit for a little while after you mix it, and you can use a kitchen rubber spatula to squeeze the paint on the edges of your container to help get the lumps out. After letting it sit a little while you can also strain it through some cheesecloth or better yet a piece of a nylon stocking or pantyhose- that works great!

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance, and thanks again.
Best Regards,
Anne Thibeau
President
The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co., Inc.

I will be using here suggestions on the next go round.  I hope this helps you guys out. 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Jelly Cupboard,Milk Paint

Milk Paint – You painted with milk are you nuts?

No No, we didn’t paint with milk.  That could be interesting however.  What I did do is use a great product from The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company.  This paint is something akin to what early American craftsmen would have used in painting their furniture or other household items.  Milk paint was made at home by hand typically using skim or buttermilk, and a combination of limestone and more or less anything they could find for color.  What The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company did was create their own recipe for their reproduction furniture business.  After seeing what they were able to accomplish they started receiving requests for their paint and thus what we have today. 

Now this stuff is totally different than anything I have used before, for one it comes in a dry powder form that you have to mix with water to make the actual paint.  This is easily accomplished by adding the powder and water to a nice sized mason jar and shaking the heck out of it.  The directions call for warm water, I used water that was closer to hot so that it dissolved completely.  Once you have it mixed up and ready to use get yourself ready if you are sensitive to smell.  Once you open that jar you will be met with a slight sour “Milk” smell.  Nobody told me about that.  Whew did it catch me off guard.  It really isn’t all that bad I just wasn’t expecting it.  It’s one of those things that you get used to as you are using it and don’t think anything about it after a few minutes.

As I started painting I was really concerned with how the paint was going to turn out.  When I started brushing it on it went on differently than Latex or Oil based paint it was almost streaky and blotchy all at once.  I tried smoothing it out as much as I could but could not get it to lay like I wanted to.  I went ahead and painted the whole piece at this point it was the back slats of the Jelly Cupboard build.  I was so frustrated with the way it looked I went to Lowes and bought some latex paint to repaint with, well they say time is a great healer and well they don’t lie whoever they are.  By the time I went to Lowes purchased the paint did a few other things came back and looked at the paint it had dried and had dried very smoothly.  This was not at all the outcome I was expecting.  I was very pleased.  I decided then I would give the Sea Green color I had purchased a chance.  Boy are we glad I did.  This stuff looks AMAZING.  It recreates the primitive/colonial/country look that I know a lot of you go after.  I couldn’t be more happy with it.  It beats the heck out of using a latex paint and having to work with it to achieve nothing close to what this stuff does.  I couldn’t believe it I had on one of my pieces finally found the look that I wanted.  In order to protect the great paint job I also applied the Milk Paint Clear Coat product that is available as well.  This stuff is also great but a word of warning do not use this stuff in an enclosed poorly ventilated area.  I opened the bottle and immediately knew that I had to open the shop doors turn on the fans and the air filtering system.  It’s some strong smelling stuff, but is totally safe to use.  Make sure you put it on thin I goofed in a few places and let it build up and had to adjust fix it. 

Oh I totally forgot to mention that before I applied the clear coat I took some 0000 Steel wool and “Sanded” the whole piece.  This helped level the paint out and dull the paint just a little. After the clear coat dried I did the same with it.  I did not want a super shiny clear coat and you don’t really get one with this stuff, well at least I didn’t, but the steel wool levels it and make it look even better in my opinion. 

Okay so to wrap up.  I totally recommend and will be using milk paint on future projects.  Here is the skinny though, it’s a little more expensive than what you would pay for latex based paint but if you are going after that period look or just want something different it is totally worth it.  At the retailer I purchased it from it was about $13 per package and each package gives your roughly a pint of paint so I have about $20 worth of paint on the Jelly cupboard.  I used almost a full pint of Sea Green and a full Pint of Oyster White.  Now I usually would by quarts of latex paint so it’s quart for quart about half the cost, but I also don’t have almost a whole quart of paint sitting around taking up space hoping that it will get used on another project, wondering if it was good enough, and if it lived up to my standards.  I mean that’s a hard thing for paint to have to go through day in and day out watching me build and wondering if this is the time that it will get used.  Well I can tell you I will still use Latex paint, but for anything that is going to be even remotely period based or primitive the milk paint will be my paint of choice.  It almost makes me want to go and sand all the latex off the couple of pieced I made last year and redo them with the milk paint. 

Please make sure to check out their website http://www.milkpaint.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Jelly Cupboard,Milk Paint,Paint

Jelly Cupboard is Done

I took the time today and got the jelly cupboard finished.  We ended up putting chicken wire on it.  I got the handle attached so it can be opened now that the chicken wire is installed.  My wife took some time to fill the cupboard with a few things and now she is trying to figure out what color to paint the bathroom. 

Everything installed looking good, we are trying out some different ideas for the top. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wife filling up the cupboard.  I’m sure she will find more stuff to fill it with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what we decided on for now.  I am very pleased with the way it turned out. 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Jelly Cupboard,milk paint,bathroom

 

Jelly Cupboard and Guitar update

Well I finally decided it was time to finish the jelly cupboard.  I am almost there.  I have the main body painted the door painted and need to get the final pieces of the door cut and will have it all done.  We decided at this time we are just going to put chicken wire on the door.  I will post pics once that is done.  I used milk paint and am pretty pleased with it. 

I used white milk paint for the inside and green on the outside.  I also stained the top instead of painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay now for the guitar.  I have let this thing mess with my head way to much and made a ton of mistakes that I probably wouldn’t have if this had been furniture.  I think I will be able to salvage it and make something of a playable guitar out of it.  I have learned a ton and it has allowed me to get over my guitar making jitters.  I will hopefully get this thing done soon.

But for now here is a picture of it in its current state

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Guitar,Jelly Cupboard

Jelly Cupboard Update 2

I had a little more time to work on the Jelly Cupboard and was able to get the door hung.

I need to put some cross braces on and get the punch tin done.  Throw on some Milk paint and I am done.  I am looking forward to completing this.  It’s probably one of the more complex projects I have taken on so far.  Then we will be on to the WIWW build.  Hoping to go get the wood for that tomorrow.  Once that’s complete I will be focusing on the guitar build for a little while.

Should be interesting.  I am thinking I am going to do a little video of that as well.  Who knows, with this being my first one and not being sure of my ability.  I honestly feel a little crazy taking on such a project at this point in my woodworking journey, but I have come to the realization lately that there are sometimes you have to stop trying to learn and spend time doing.  I also find that in that doing I tend to learn significantly more than I would have just reading about it and really if you don’t start the project you can never know if you can accomplish it and learn and become better.  My only worry is that it will play like crap.  I care what it looks like but I would rather have a good/great playing guitar out of my first one than one that plays like crap and looks great.  If it looks like crap I can fix that.  If it plays like crap I can fix that to I will just be a little more disappointed in my abilities.

I guess my take away from this for you is that if you want to do something and supposed “Talent”, “Skill” or worry that you are getting ready to screw up some beautiful Mahogany and Maple are standing in your way.  Kick them over, bust up in that joint like you own the place and get to work.  A master craftsman didn’t become a master craftsman by sitting and looking at books, videos or the internet all day, he became a master craftsman by doing it.  It doesn’t matter if that Craftsman taught himself, went to school or learned it from a friend or family member he/she ultimately had to put tool to wood and make something.  So lets get out there and build something. 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: woodworking,jelly cupboard,philosophy,guitars

Jelly Cupboard Build Update

Now that I have had some time in the shop I started working on the Jelly Cupboard Build again.  I need to get that out of the shop so I can get reorganized and cleaned up to start the WIWW nightstand/beach house nightstand. 

I thought I would post a few pics of that I was able to get done tonight. 

This is part of the door frame.  It is constructed with a half lap joint.  There are a couple of ways to accomplish this joint.  There are two ways specifically to accomplish this on a table saw (Well Two ways that I know of I am sure there other ways) one is to use a Dado Set which I have loaned out currently, the second and the way that I accomplished this is to use your regular blade and nibble away that the wood. 

Essentially I like to figure out the width of my cut set my fence that width and make my first cut.  Now if you do this make sure you use your miter gauge with a sacrificial fence, this does a couple of things.  It provides support to the back of the wood as well as giving you some additional support on the board you are cutting.  I make my first cut with the wood against the fence just touching not real tight on the fence you don’t want to cause a bind or have it kick on you.  Now with the first cut made I move the board just a hair to the left to let the blade nibble away at the next piece and then rinse and repeat until I get to the last cut.  You will need to do some clean up. 

If you look at the board you probably missed some pieces if they are large pieces you can line them up with the blade and cut them out.  If they are just fragments of wood hanging there your best bet is a piece of sand paper a 1/4 sheet sander or even a block plane.  I opted for the block plane because I have geeked out on using hand tools as much as I can lately.  I guess you could use a chisel as well. 

Once you have nibbled away at both the boards you will have a joint that looks similar to the one seen here.  Now you can see why it’s called a half lap joint.  This is a pretty neat Joint and I can see using this in future projects.

As you can see in the previous picture I also drilled a couple of holes for dowels.  They are supposed to help reinforce the joint.  With modern glue I don’t really think there is a need for reinforcement however from a cosmetic aspect they fit well with this piece. 

 

Here is a quick shot of the body of the cupboard.  I had some time to paint part of the inside.  I need to finish that up.  Obviously the inside will be white and the outside is going to be a grayish/green color.  Should be interesting.  I am doing it all with milk paint.  I will do a post on that at some point as it is somewhat different than regular paint. 

At this point I need to finish up the door frame and cut the hinge mortise and get everything mounted.  Mrs. Grover will be doing the punched tin for the door.  I’m hoping i can get her setup this weekend and get that knocked out. 

 

 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: woodworking,hand tools,jelly cupboard,half lap joint,table saw,block plane

Jelly Cupboard Build Day 5

Who knew it would take so long to build this thing.  Well when you only get a few hours in the shop a day it can take some time. 

I was able to get the face frames attached today and spent some time dry fitting all the other components. 

Here I am testing out the back slats.  I had to fine tune them a little to get them to work well.  I am pretty pleased.    Here is what things look like from the front side.  You can see how the Ship Lap slats give it a unique look and feel.  One thing to note if you do plan on a project that uses this type of back you will want to paint the individual pieces before permanently installing them.  The wood will expand and contract from season to season so those joints through out the year will be different and if they open up and you painted it while it they were close then you will see bare wood.  Plus it’s much easier to get in between the joints when they aren’t installed.  This is the bottom face frame plate.  There will be a kick plate on the front of this.  There is a 1/4” reveal on the bottom shelf.  That will provide a stop for the door on the bottom.  However I didn’t pay attention enough to the plan and didn’t allow for the same reveal on the top face plate.  So the door could technically push through.  I have a fix for this and will show you that when I come to it.  Some of you probably already know what I am going to do.  Let me know what you think I am going to do.  Anyway.  This is the uncut kick plate, there will be and nice arched cutout on it when I am done.  I should hopefully get that done in the next few days.  The plan calls for a round over on it.  I can’t decide if I want to do that or just knock the corners off with the sander.  I am going for more of a primitive look than a country look maybe I will cut a second kick plate and do it both ways and let my wife decide.  Here we have the final dry fit shot of the night.  The top.  I clamped up the back and roughly centered the top.  Then it dawned on me that hey I just built a book shelf.  That was easy.   That is it for now.  In the next couple of nights I need to finish sanding the whole project to 220 Grit, build the door.  I need to order the tin and the punch tools so that my wife can create the punched tin inserts.  Paint the carcass and the door.  Once we are done with the punched tin then I can install that all in the door and mount the door.  I am not sure how long the process of punching the tin for the four door panels will take, neither one of us has ever done that.  Do any of you have any experience with punched tin?  Let us know…. 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Jelly Cupboad,woodworking,country,primitive

Jelly Cupboard Build Day 4

Well today is day four of the Jelly Cupboard build.  I got a late start tonight so I didn’t get as much accomplished as I had hoped but on the positive side the rough carcass is together

There are a TON of clamps on there,  two for every shelf.  I am very happy with it.  I have to do some tuning to the mortises.  Some of the mortises were not as tight as I would have liked so I added a few shims to each of the shelves it really tightened things up on the mortises.  They are much tighter than they originally were.  I will take a utility knife and cut away the extra shim after the glue has dried.  I also took the time tonight to use my new mouse cam.  I figured I would have the little guy take a shot of the decorative arch.  I used a jigsaw to cut the two arches out.  I’m not the greatest at free hand cutting with the so there is a little clean up that needs to be done.  Honestly one of the most amazing things that happened is when I checked level on all the shelves.  This is what I found. 

I can honestly say I am shocked.  I didn’t really think that the shelves would be that level.  This is probably the biggest projected I have taken on so far in my short time woodworking.  I think I am starting to get the hang of all this stuff, but I have a LONG way to go and so much to learn.  I hope you will stick around and learn with me. 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Jelly cupboard,mortises,furniture,country

Jelly Cupboard Build Days One and Two

I started the build on the Jelly cupboard last night.  Here is a picture of what I hope the end product resembles.

I am planning on painting it.  I am going to use milk paint we are going to use Sea Green.  Which isn’t so much green as it is a bluish, grey green.  My wife will be doing the punched tin.  If anyone has any experience in punching tin please let give me your tips and tricks.  She(we) have never done it before and I have a good idea how I am going to do it but I wouldn’t mind some expert advice.  Last evening I only had a short time in the shop but it was enough time to get both sides of the cupboard cut and glued up.  Here is my stack of wood that I will be using.   I used a biscuit jointer again to join the sides together.  I don’t really think they add much strength to the joint but it sure does make aligning the boards a whole heck of a lot easier. 

These are the slots that the biscuit saw creates.

 

 

 

 

These are the biscuits installed in the board you put a biscuit in one half of the joint and then place the other half on top and align the board you have a little play each way with the boards. 

This is the first side of the cupboard, rinse and repeat for the second.

Tonight I spent some time milling the rest of the lumber.  Here is the stack of milled parts labeled and ready to be assembled.

One thing that I am going to do with this piece is trying a Ship Lap joint on the back.  Tonight I ran some test pieces to see how the joint worked and looked.  This is what that joint looks like.

 

With this joint I will only attach the top and bottoms of the boards to the back of the cupboard and this will allow the wood to expand and contract through the seasonal changes and moisture changes, plus it just looks really cool.  Anyway that’s all for now.  I will update you as I go along.  If you have any questions please feel free to shoot me an email.

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: furniture,jelly cupboard,country,woodworking,Ship Lap Joint,Biscuit jointer