Dark Green Buffet Makeover

These antique buffets are some of my very favorite pieces of furniture to paint! I love keeping those long turned legs in a stained wood finish and painting the rest. Here’s the dark green buffet makeover!

Get more green painted furniture ideas here.

antique buffet before getting painted in dark green milk paint

This time I tried something a little bit new with creating a distressed look. I also mixed up a new paint color (find the exact recipe below!)

Read on to see the full makeover for this dark green painted buffet! We found this buffet at our local Goodwill. This is what it looked like when we found it!

Table of Contents

Supplies Used For Dark Green Buffet Makeover

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Krud Kutter and an Old Damp Rag
Shackteau Interiors Milk Paint in Clarke Pond Green, Black Beach, and Blue Moon paint colors – my favorite milk paint brand!
Vaseline (optional)
Painters Tape
Zibra Paint Brush – my favorite cost effective paint brushes!
220 Grit Sandpaper – this is the best kind of sandpaper!
Shackteau Interiors Hemp Oil
Dollar Store Paint Brush and a Lint Free Rag
Dark Wax and Wax Brush or Cheap Chip Brush

Clean Buffet

First, clean your furniture with a grease/oil-cutting cleaner. I like to use Krud Kutter. Check out this post to learn more about how to clean furniture before painting and why it’s so important!

Mix the Milk Paint

The dark green paint that I used on this buffet was a mix of 3 different Shackteau Interiors Milk Paint colors.

powdered shackteau interiors milk paint in blue moon, black beach and clarke pond green

To recreate this color, use:

6 Tablespoons Clarke Pond Green
2 Tablespoons Blue Moon
1 Tablespoon Black Beach

To mix milk paint colors together, mix them in powdered form, and then mix the deep green custom color with warm water to turn it into paint. Learn how to mix milk paint colors here.

Learn about mixing milk paint into liquid paint here, including how much water to mix into the powder, and the easiest way to mix powdered milk paint.

Check out my comparison between milk paint vs chalk paint here.

a paintbrush dipped into dark green milk paint

Remember to only mix a small amount of paint because mixed-up milk paint doesn’t last very long.

Apply Vaseline (optional)

This step is for those who don’t want to sand the milk paint to distress it. Basically, anywhere you put some Vaseline, the paint won’t stick. I tried it on this piece, and honestly, I didn’t love it.

It’s hard to control the vaseline, so you end up with large distressed areas instead of the more natural looking distressing that comes from 220 grit sandpaper.

Read this post to learn the pros and cons of distressing furniture with these 6 methods.

But if you really don’t want to sand, the vaseline can be a good option. After the piece is painted, just use a damp lint-free rag to remove any paint from those areas.

Tape Off Buffet Legs

Since I kept the legs stained, I taped off the top of the legs and any edges where I would paint into with painters tape.

Paint Buffet

Now it’s time to paint! Paint 2 coats of milk paint letting the milk paint dry in between coats.

I personally love using a Zibra paint brush with milk paint. They just go so well together! Read all about the best paint brushes for painting furniture here!

If you have a paint sprayer, you can spray milk paint! Learn how to spray milk paint here.

distressed paint with vaseline — The areas without paint is where the vaseline was. applied before the paint.

Distress Painted Buffet and Scuff the Legs

Distressing with 220-grit sandpaper creates a more authentic distressed look. It also helps the milk paint chip. Though I didn’t really get much chipping on this piece.

If you really want your milk paint to chip, use this secret to get milk paint to have a chippy paint finish every time. I just distressed the milk paint by sanding it by hand. And then I removed the tape on the legs.

And scuff sanded the legs to smooth out the rough old finish, and to smooth out any scratches on the legs. Then remove the dust with a vacuum hose attachment and/or a damp lint free rag.

For the best dust removal, I like to use these tack cloths! They pick up all the dust and don’t leave any lint behind! Check out more distressed painted furniture ideas here.

Seal Milk Painted Buffet

For this buffet, I chose to seal the milk paint with Shackteau Interiors hemp oil. Learn the 3 best ways to seal milk paint here.

To seal milk paint with hemp oil, simply brush the hemp oil onto the paint with a cheap chip brush or dollar store brush that you can throw away.

Let the hemp oil sink into the paint and then wipe off the excess with a lint-free rag.

Hemp oil needs to dry for a couple of days before you put stuff on it or use the surface, so I don’t use hemp oil very often. Read more about all the different topcoats for painting furniture.

Brush Dark Wax Onto Buffet Legs

The legs were in decent condition before, so I decided to keep the original finish on them, but freshen them up.

The easiest way to freshen up the old finish is to brush some dark wax onto the scuff-sanded legs. A little bit of wax goes a long way, so brush it on in a very light coat.

Once it dries overnight, go back and buff it out with a clean lint-free rag, just until it feels smooth.

** You could also easily freshen up the legs with gel stain – learn more on this tutorial in this post: how to stain wood darker!

Step back and enjoy your creation! Make sure to be super super careful with your new paint job for at least 30 days, until the products that you used are cured.

Get more painted buffet ideas here.

closeup of dark green distressed buffet with stained wood legs

dark green painted distressed buffet with stained legs

More Before And After Makeovers

Click any of these “before” photos below to view the “after” of that makeover.