Creating a Custom Stain
The seasons are changing! What’s something new you could try?!
Dolly Parton says it best: “I think if there’s something that you need to do, want to do, can afford to do and got the nerve to do, I think you should do it!”
What’s something that you’ve been itching to do? Maybe it’s something big like making a move or quitting a job to pursue a lifelong dream. Or maybe it’s something small like picking up an old hobby, testing your creative limits, or simply trying something you’ve never tried before.
This week I was feeling like I wanted to try something new! And although I’ve painted with MMSMP plenty of times and even used Curio as a stain before, I hadn’t tried making my own recipe! And it’s fair to say that I learned something new while transforming this cutie coffee table!
Have you ever finished a project and thought, “Oh my goodness, this is amazing! I can’t wait to show everyone the Before + After, only to realize you don’t have a Before. Yeah, me too! Although I don’t have a picture, I do have a short video clip!
This here is when I was asking my followers on Instagram which direction they thought I should take this table!
You can see here this oak table has a sanded top and the base still has the original stain. Although this table could be easily used as an accent table, I envisioned it as a coffee table! There are a lot of townhomes being built here in Buena Vista, and, as you know, those long, slender spaces can be hard to find furniture for!
The scale of this empire-style table lends itself perfectly to a small living room, but I found the original stain to be lackluster and boring. MMSMP to the rescue!
First off, I decided to go with a lighter base and natural top. Given the scale of this particular piece, I thought that going with a darker base (such as Typewriter) and a dark top would dwarf the table. I knew I didn’t want that!
So I decided to go a lighter route! Farmhouse White was the winning choice for the base of the table. MMSMP goes a long way, and I only needed a half cup of paint for two coats. I like to go apply paint heavily in the nooks and crannies when hoping for chipping!
Once dried, I grabbed 180 grit sandpaper to distress. You can see distressing creates quite a bit of dust. I use my shop vac to vacuum up as much as possible and then a lightly damp rag to wipe up any excess from there. (If your rag is too wet, you may cause further distressing.)
You may remember reading my blog post earlier this year on how to use Curio as a stain on this drop-leaf table. It is full of step-by-step instructions and can be found here. I loved the results of that table so much that I decided to go for it again!
For this particular table, I was going for a little lighter stain, so I tried adding a bit of Farmhouse White to the Curio to lighten the stain. The recipe I used for this tabletop was 1 Tbsp Curio, 1 Tsp Farmhouse White, and 1/4c. Water. You can see when making a stain, your ratio of paint to water is much different than when mixing to paint!
I have to admit, I got excited about getting this piece painted before school pick-up, and I almost forgot to save it for my Facebook Live! I got one brushstroke in and then quickly remembered to stop! Shew! That was a close call! The benefit is that it gave me a chance to see the difference between proceeding with the entire tabletop.
If you weren’t able to watch the Live yet, go check it out! It is full of information, including why I chose to lighten the stain with Farmhouse White, how much paint to put on your brush, and how to wipe back any excess staging! Visual examples are always so helpful when learning something new!
Ok, so here is where the learning comes in. Although I added Farmhouse White to lighten this stain, it is darker than I was originally aiming for. The good news is that 1. I still love it! And 2. Everything is fixable!
Next time I try this, which I definitely will do, I’m going to try 1 part Curio to 1 part Farmhouse White and see what happens! If you beat me to try this, please share the results!
That’s the fun of painting and creating, especially with MMSMP. This is way more art than science, and art is forgiving. Heck, even when it doesn’t go exactly as planned, you still end up with something beautiful.
If you’re interested in this table, it is available and can be shipped nationwide! Head to theupstreamhome.com for all the details and to see many more MMSMP pieces!
