Cane Wing-Back Chair Facelift

This Cane Wing-Back chair was given a furniture makeover facelift. Milk Paint in the colour Almond Latte is the perfect neutral taupe to lighten up the dark and outdated look.

Here’s what you’re going to need for this project:

Almond Latte Fusion Milk Paint
Fusion Ultra Grip
Fusion TSP
Staalmeester Flat Brush
Fusion Clear Wax
Fusion Ageing Wax
#300 – #400 soft sandpaper block
#220 grit sandpaper
Hand whisk

Mixing Milk Paint

We mixed equal parts of water and milk paint with a hand whisk. After you have mixed the powder, let it stand for about 15 minutes and give it another mix, making sure to touch your whisk to the bottom of your paint cup.

Top Tip: stir every so often while you are painting as the pigments often settle to the bottom. This will keep your paint colour consistent.

This piece of furniture has a gloss finish, so to ensure that the adhesion is perfect without chipping, we added Fusion Ultra Grip to our mixed paint.

How to Prep a Chair for Milk Paint

To prep our chair before painting, we cleaned it with Fusion TSP. This will remove any grease that may have been left on your piece and help to degloss the surface slightly. We recommend cleaning your furniture piece before the sanding step.

The next step was to scuff-sand the piece all over with #220 grit sandpaper to allow the milk paint to adhere.

Applying Milk Paint

Apply your Milk Paint, leaving 20-30 minutes between coats. Two coats of paint using Staalmeester Flat Brush is all we needed with this gorgeous colour for a solid opaque finish.

Adding Topcoat to Milk Paint

Since we wanted a buttery-soft smooth finish, using a very low grit #300 – #400 soft sandpaper block we sanded the piece all over, almost burnishing the paint into the wood. This leaves your piece super smooth and will increase the sheen.

To finish the chair, we applied Fusion Clear Wax all over, then to define some lines, we applied Fusion Ageing Wax in some moulding crevices with an angled artist’s brush, basically painting in the ageing wax. The result is very subtle.