We've recently become Cornish Milk Mineral Paint stockists and love the beautiful range of colours and super smooth finish it achieves on furniture. 

It's made in the UK and contains 100% natural ingredients and earth pigments, there are no harsh chemicals or toxins so it has minimal VOC's. Cornish Mineral Paint even comes in eco-friendly packaging with a recyclable carton thats easy to reclose.

It's suitable for use indoors or outdoors and can be used on furniture and walls. It is UV resistant too as well as being durable once cured.

Here's our step-by-step guide to painting furniture with Cornish Milk Mineral Paint:

We bought this 1950's Ercol sideboard from a local house clearance company, it is a lovely solid piece of furniture made from Elm wood, it just looked a little dark and tired with it's brown stain. We gave it a good clean inside and out with TSP and then scuff sanded the surface to give a good key for the paint to grip to and to smooth out a few bumps and dinks that it's picked up during it's life. We used 180 grit sanding pads and an electric sander. 

We sanded the top back to bare wood because it's such a beautiful grain, we started with 40 grit sanding pads and worked our way through the grades and finished with 220 grit for a super smooth finish. 

We removed the door handles and drawers for painting and lightly sanded them too. We then used frog tape (decorators making tape) to tape off the drawers, this gives a perfectly crisp line which you can paint over and remove when dried leaving a nice neat edge. 

We then used Whitson's Superior Adhesion Primer to make sure we got a super smooth finish. You don't need to use a primer with Cornish Milk Mineral Paint but we wanted to make sure that we get a perfectly smooth finish so we usually use this on any piece that has been varnished or has a high gloss finish previously. 

Next up is the fun bit, choosing the colour! Kelp (top) and Seaglass (bottom) are both glorious greens from the Cornish range, after painting them in the sketchbook we decided to go for Kelp. 

You can get a super smooth, no-brush stroke finish with Cornish, the brush type has a lot to do with it. We love the Cling on range of brushes and used the S30 & S50 on this cabinet along with a small artists brush from the Annie Sloan Detail Brush kit. 

Because Cornish Milk Mineral Paint has such fabulous coverage from natural pigments we only had to do two coats and only used about half of the 500ml carton. 

To seal and finish the top of the sideboard we used Fusion Stain and Finishing Oil in Natural(which is clear!) which after two coats gives a lovely sheen. It's easy to apply just wipe on with an applicator sponge or a brush, leave for 15 minutes then wipe off the excess with a clean cloth. Leave for 2-4 hours then apply the second coat. It takes 3 days to fully dry and 10 days to cure. 

We left the paint to cure for 48 hours before putting the drawers back and refitting the handles to make sure it's cured and ready. There is no need to top coat or wax for protection as it's a tough, durable paint once cured.

We love the fresh green tone which compliments the beautiful wooden top. This piece of furniture is now for sale, ready to find another home for the next 70 years! Nationwide delivery is available. 

We regularly upcycle and refinish furniture for sale and for commission, if you've got a piece of furniture that you'd like refinishing do get in touch for a quotation.