Hopefully you saw my post about how Tim and I purchased a banged up old dresser for our room (for $20!) with the intention to give it the distressed, painted look that I love so much. If not, check it out here (it’s a quick read!).

Now I’m going to show you what we did to created a distressed dresser, diy style.

First, we took sand paper and sanded down the furniture. We didn’t strive for perfection, but just did our best to get most of that dark red stain off the furniture and get back to the original grain. Tim and I both worked on at the same time, and I think it took us about 20 minutes to get it sanded. No, I didn’t take a picture. Why? Because I’m an idiot. Sorry.

Then we busted out our milk paint! Milk Paint is a paint mix that uses milk protein, lime, clay and earth pigments such as ochre, umber, iron oxide, etc. They use no lead, no chemical preservatives and no fungicides. Milk Paint contains no hydrocarbons or any other petroleum derivatives. The paints are environmentally safe and non-toxic. I’ve always wanted to try out an eco-friendly paint, but I have only needed paint for small projects in the past few years, so buying a gallon, and sometimes even a quart, just didn’t seem necessary (at least not for the price).

But now that I’ve tried it, I wish that I had tried it LONG ago! And I definitely wish I had known about Milk Paint. This is totally the way to go! Milk Paint comes to your door as a powder in a bag. Check out the easy and fun process for turning it into paint (and yes, that’s a plastic box we used…we thought we had a paint brush tray, but we didn’t, and we were eager to get going!).

So easy! And here’s what I really love: you only have to make as much as you want to use at a time. Over time, my cans of paint have always dried out, despite our best efforts to keep them sealed. That just isn’t a problem with Milk Paint, since anything you don’t use stays in powder form. Additionally, I found the paint to have NO SMELL. This is something I’ve never experienced with paint before, and it was so cool! I feel so happy about this, because I know it isn’t slowly letting off dangerous chemicals in our house. Also, I love that you can purchase the paint by the gallon, quart or even the pint! Thank you!!!

Finally, I love the limited selection of paints that they offer. Yes, you read that correctly. I am completely overwhelmed by all of the options at Home Depot, and most any time I choose paint, I seem to get the color just a little bit wrong, which is so disappointing (especially since we don’t realize it until it is up on the walls and dried). Milk Paint offers 20 shades, all based on colors found on existing antique buildings and furniture. I can get that cool distressed look I want and be sure that I’ve selected a color that actually makes sense.

Here is a shot of the entire dresser after we painted it with the color Slate. I love the look, but I’m actually not sure if we distressed it enough! Ha!

Stay tuned for part 3 where I show you what we decided to do about hardware for the piece, and where I show you a different look you can achieve by using wax on the furniture! I’ll also talk about the basic strategy for achieving the distressed look. Finally, part 3 will also include an awesome giveaway, so don’t miss it!

And now for the freebie. The folks at Milk Paint are so sure that you will fall in love with their products if you just give them a try, that they’d like to send my readers a free sample of their paint (a pint)! It will be the perfect amount to tackle a small project! All you have to do is email Anne@milkpaint.com and tell her the color you’d like to have. Be sure to tell her that Tiffany at Stuff Parents Need sent you! Isn’t that crazy generous of them???

This post contains affiliate links. I was sent a complimentary sample of milk paint for review purposes. Affiliate links may be included at no cost to you.