Black is back, black is classic and timeless, it can go with any color and can look vintage, modern or sleek. Seriously the possibilities are endless. We have used classic black on many different furniture pieces, this little washstand is just the latest. It was too pretty to NOT share with you all!

Here is what it looked like before, a lovely little vintage commode with 3 drawers. It had quite a warped top, but otherwise was in great shape for it’s age. We figured out that the top was just nailed in, so it was easy to pound it off. And we found out it was so old that the top was nailed in with square nails! Isn’t that neat? I love that.

One of our favorite ways to makeover a vintage or antique piece of furniture like this one is to use Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint. Milk Paint is an all natural paint that comes in powdered form and only contains 5 ingredients. The formula itself is very very old! We feel like this is the perfect paint for pieces you wish to keep that “old world vibe” or create a vintage chippiness to it. It is very authentic and makes a fresh makeover look like it has been that way for years.

After replacing the old warped top and adding a new stained oak board to this piece instead, we chose Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in the perfect black called “Typewriter”. Aptly named for the color of  an old vintage typewriter! To paint with true Milk Paint all you do is add 1 part of water to 1 part of the powdered milk paint. For a piece like this you could mix up about 3/4 of a cup of powder and 3/4’s cup of water and stir very well.

While your paint sits, you can prep your piece by cleaning it with soap and water or our favorite product TSP Alternative. After that a good scuff sanding with a medium grit sand paper of about 180 should do to give your piece a little tooth. Now if your furniture piece is super shiny you may need to add bonding agent straight to your piece as well as to your paint mixture to make sure you get the best adhesion.

Since this little commode was so old, the wood was pretty dry and didn’t seem to have much of a topcoat to it anymore. All I did was clean it up and scuff sanded and the paint adhered beautifully with no chipping. Typewriter has absolutely wonderful coverage and it was a quick two coats of painting back to back. Milk Paint only takes about 20-30 minutes to dry and once dry you can paint over it immediately.

Once both coats of paint were completely dry I did a fun technique to distress and seal this piece at the same time. It’s called “wet-distressing”. You take hemp oil and brush it on all over the piece and then take a fine grit sand paper and lightly go over the entire painted piece. It helps to really give the paint a smooth finish. Then go a little extra or harder on raised areas or edges to take some of the paint off for distressing. The hemp oil also hydrates the wood underneath the paint where you distress, making it nice and warm looking! And you have two steps finished at the same time – sealer and distressing! After you sand the entire piece you can take a clean lint-free rag and wipe down any excess hemp oil.

And then your finished! After making the necessary repairs of replacing the top and filling a few deep gouges, the actual painting, sealing and distressing of this piece went really quickly! And it sold just as quickly. We actually had quite the line of people wanting this little sweetheart. A timeless piece, re-created to last another 100+ years!

Products used: TSP Alternative / Milk Paint “Typewriter” / Hemp Oil / Paint Brush / Stain / Sealer for Stained Top