We have a treat for you today on the blog–Alison of the Modern Cottage Company (and one of PI’s contributing writers) is here to share a gorgeous makeover with you today!  Take it away, Alison…

Part of the fun of being a furniture painter is trying different paints. All of the girls in my shop were using General Finishes Milk Paint so I thought I should give it a try and give you my review.
I ordered my paint on Amazon.com and it came to me within five days. If you want to buy this paint locally, head over to the manufacturer website and find a retailer near you.
General Mills Milk Paint is much easier to find online, though.
see a milk painted armoire at perfectly imperfect.
I ordered the paint in Snow White. A real true white.
I figured I could use it as a base color and add other latex or acrylic paints to create different colors.
I picked up this armoire a few weeks ago and immediately thought I would paint it  Snow White.
Then I thought Snow White on its own would be boring.
 I mixed an equal amount of milk paint to a grey latex paint I had in my paint stash. Mixing the two created this really pretty soft grey and I painted just the top corners and sides of the piece in the new grey.
see a milk painted armoire at perfectly imperfect.
{before}
See a milk painted armoire at perfectly imperfect.
{after}
The consistency of  General Finishes Milk Paint is like sour cream. It goes on smoothly and not clumpy. A little paint on your brush goes a long way. I used only a half a quart to paint this entire armoire.
A side note on this paint from ehow.com explaining that this paint isn’t a traditional or pure milk paint.  “MilkPaint.com notes that milk paint sold as a liquid may have synthetic paint extenders, which means it looks like milk paint but it isn’t traditional milk paint.”
Click to here learn more about milk paint. I am not a pro on the subject of milk paint and I am still learning about it.
see a milk paint armoire at perfectly imperfect.
{I am messy with my paint cans you can see!}
Just like with Chalk Paint™, you don’t need to use a bonding primer with this paint.
See a milk painted dresser at perfectly imperfect.
See how much it covers in one coat!
See a milk painted armoire at perfectly imperfect.
I wanted a heavy distressed look so I got out my high grit sanding block and started to go to work distressing.
This paint is so durable that even with my sanding block I couldn’t easily distress it. I could have used my electric sander and saved time but when I was finishing this piece I was at my store and just wanted to get it done. I decided to wrap my sanding block with an even higher grit sand paper and I continued to distress.
This seemed to do the job {and I used 5 pieces of high grit sandpaper}.
See a milk painted armoire at perfectly imperfect.
I decided against using a wax or poly finish on the armoire for several reasons.
 The first being the durability of this paint. It is actually an indoor/outdoor paint and is made for high traffic use and to withstand extreme elements.
The second reason I didn’t seal the piece was that I actually really like the finish the paint has on its own. It isn’t flat but it isn’t quite a satin…it is somewhat in the middle.
See a milk painted armoire at perfectly imperfect.
A wax and buff finish with this paint would be lovely though.
See a milk painted armoire at perfectly imperfect
I really enjoyed working with this paint. It won’t replace my use of chalk paint or latex paint, but I will definitely use it again.
It would be fun to do a two tone piece with both milk and chalk paint then wax the entire piece.
I think I just gave myself and idea for my next post!
Thank you Shaunna and Perfectly Imperfect readers. This is one of my favorite makeovers and I enjoyed sharing it with you!
{This post was purely the opinion of Alison from The Modern Cottage Company. She was not compensated at all for her opinion}.
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Isn’t it a gorgeous piece?!?  P.S. General Mills Milk Paint is a little bit different than old fashioned milk paint (similar to Miss Mustard Seed’s line she has coming out).  I know the beauty of the MMS milk paint will be its unpredictability and its general chippy behavior.  Excited to try it out and carry it in our local and online shops!
Thank you again, Alison!  LOVE your new/old armoire!!