Milk Paint to Chalk Paint Chair Makeover

Today, I’m excited to start sharing a few of the projects we’ve been working on at Loblolly Manor including this milk paint to chalk paint chair makeover I completed back in February.

As some of you may know we’ve been working on my childhood home, Loblolly Manor, off and on for several years now. We had to pretty much gut it down to the studs in late 2015. We took it from the construction zone stage to house stage in 2016. And now that it’s been lived in a little more we’re ready to give the house a bit of a refresh and make it feel more like a home.

I painted these thrifted accent chairs for the living room at Loblolly with milk paint in Lucketts Green a few years ago. You can read all about that process here. You can see from the picture above how they looked when we brought them home. The one to the left is the original paint color.

At the time, my mom wanted different shades of whites, greens, and pops of turquoise all throughout Loblolly which is why we painted them in Lucketts Green. That color served us well until my mom decided she wanted a more consistent color palette of whites, grays, camels and pops of black so it would be easier to decorate during each season.

We ultimately chose to use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite because we’ve used that same color in several other places around the house. If you’re new to furniture painting you can read our step-by-step painting guide here. I haven’t used as many milk paint products as I have chalk painting products, and I mistakenly thought I could just paint over the existing milk paint…

but I was so wrong.

In fact, super weird stuff started happening which I’m not blaming on the milk paint at all. This is after one coat…

after three coats…

In hindsight, I should have sanded off all the old milk paint. It’s just gosh, all those curves…I was trying to save some time, you know? I wound up wasting a lot of it though. Two days to be exact. Learn from my mistake, ok?

Finally, after 5 coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite and a bit of furniture paste wax, the living room accent chairs were good to go.

The change in the living room was almost immediate. Here’s a look at the chairs when we originally painted them in January 2016…

In June 2016, we layered in a few thrifted accessories and added the burlap pillows we picked up at the Renninger’s Extravaganza.

Here’s a look at the chairs after the milk paint to chalk paint makeover we completed this February…

We used the same pillows, accessories, wall art and coffee table we already had on hand in the living room but changed out the vignette on the coffee table and rug in order to give it a fresh look.

You guys this milk paint to chalk paint chair makeover is such a small change that made a big difference in the living room at Loblolly! It just makes the entire space seem so much more cohesive now. At some point we’ll add new pillows to the slipcovered couch and I’m still hoping one day we’ll be able to paint the kitchen cabinets in Benjamin Moore Decorators White too. We’re also considering painting the medallion in French Linen but one of us is on the fence about it. For now, we’re just going to keep crossing things off our project to do list until we can make the best and most intentional decision for the living room.

Speaking of projects, I’ll see you guys back here tomorrow. I’ll share the desk makeover we almost used in the Laundry Room at Loblolly. I swear, it’s been like fruit basket turnover with furniture at that house lately. Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo