Bailey is a Flipped Her Lid original.  My brother built her for me many years ago from 100% reclaimed wood.  He crafted it himself from a picture I showed him in a magazine.  I had painted it with this drab old dark brown color at the time. 😝  It’s no wonder that it eventually made its way to the garage “project” pile for a future re-do!

Fast forward about twenty years (I could almost call this thing vintage!) and this is what Bailey looked like when I drug her out of storage.  Please excuse my messy workroom in the background and my grand-dog’s backside!  Pets are frequently popping up in my blog photos as they are always underfoot while I’m trying to work.  I gave up trying to edit them out of the pics!

My plan after a thorough cleaning and hole-patching was to paint Bailey with white milk paint and hope for a nice chippy-white painted look.  But the milk paint did not chip.  Not even after a gentle coaxing with a paint scraper.

C.C. thought Bailey would make a great cat condo and loved how all that plain white paint really set off her grey camouflage coat!  In the end I decided to go in a whole new direction with Bailey.  Something with a little more warmth and interest.

I settled on giving Bailey a layered, rustic, grungy look.  I used some neutral tones of chalk paint in Whispering Wheat and Mineral and added some texture medium in a few spots.  Working in sections, I applied the mineral randomly over the white, leaving splotches of white showing through.  Then while the Mineral was still wet, I applied the wheat randomly as I did the Mineral.  I blended by dipping my brush in water occasionally and merging the two colors together.  After the chalk paint was dry I used a dark brown antiquing wax that I applied with a brush and then wiped off with a cloth, followed by a clear matte sealer.  I attached a rustic handle I found in the discount bin at Hobby Lobby.

C.C. quietly observed from the safety of the crates while I scurried around staging Bailey for the pics!  She thinks Bailey would be a great addition to your Farmhouse style decor.

I can picture Bailey’s new life next to a large, sunny, dining room window filled with potted herbs!  I’ve never had much success with indoor herbs myself (between the cats noshing on the leaves and me forgetting to water) but I love the idea of it!

So what do you think?  Would you rather have seen Bailey with the chippy white milk paint or do you like her new grungy, primitive look?