Milk paint is amazing for getting that perfectly chippy, rustic look on your furniture. Today, I’m gonna show you how to milk paint a buffet cabinet, and you can easily recreate this on your own. And you’re going to love how this transformation turned out!

With these painting furniture ideas and tips, you’ll learn how to use milk paint to transform your furniture into a gorgeous, one of a kind piece, and add a touch of vintage charm to your home. Let’s get started!

A wooden sideboard against a wall with the word before written across the image in large script text.

Welcome to Furniture Fixer Upper day, where we join 4 of our talented furniture friends and bring you brand new makeovers! I’ll link to my friend’s makeovers after our after photos at the bottom of this post! Don’t forget to check out their masterpieces!! Okay, back to our makeover!

This was a really fun makeover! We got this antique buffet for $120 – it has great bones, but there were actually quite a few issues with this. That’s why this project took me a while to get around to, because I had to fix all these issues.

If you’ve got a piece of furniture sitting in your house that needs some love, you can do this, too! Minor damage or wear can be repaired and then refreshed with a new, fresh color to match your decor.

And if you’re going for a rustic, charming look, milk paint is a great option! If you’ve never used it before, now may be the perfect time to try it out. So when you’re ready, let’s dive into milk painting a buffet cabinet!

Supplies Used to Milk Paint A Buffet Cabinet

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Screwdriver
Wood Filler
Sandpaper
Syringe
Wood Glue
Clamps
Wood Applique
Dixie Belle BOSS
Shackteau Interiors Milk Paint in Coastal Fog and Clarke Pond Green
Zibra Round Brush
Space Heater
Shackteau Interiors Hemp Oil
Annie Sloan Dark Wax
Glass White Knobs

Removing Detail and Filling in Damage

I did not like the detail on the top drawer. It looks like a magic lamp from Aladdin. It’s not my style, I think it’s way outdated, and it just had to go. So, the first thing I did was pry that off, and it left some good marks behind. It ruined the wood veneer a little bit, so I needed to fix that as well.

Close-up of scratched, partially removed wood veneer after removing emblem.

I removed the old hardware and filled in the old hardware holes, so that I could change them out. I did not want to keep it either. I wanted to replace them with knobs, so I filled in one hole of each of the existing hardware holes. Learn more about the ways of filling holes when replacing cabinet or furniture hardware here.

A hand is sanding a dark wooden surface with filled drawer holes

I also filled in the damage I caused to the top drawer from removing that lamp detail. I filled that in, and then I sanded everything once the filler was all dry. I sanded all that smooth, and then I scuff sanded the entire buffet. Then I started working on the drawers.

Hand using an electric sander on a wooden surface outdoors.

Close-up of a wooden surface with white filler patches applied over scratches and blemishes.

Gorilla Wood Glue

Glue Syringe

Wood Clamp

Fixing Wood Veneer

This furniture is made with wood veneer, and the veneer has gotten damaged over time, most likely from humidity. It has started to separate from the wooden construction, so it needed to be glued back on.

Two clamps securing the corner of a wooden drawer for lifting veneer repair

I used this syringe to put some wood glue in it and then glued the veneer back onto the drawers. And then I clamped everything together.

While I worked on that, I also got a new wood applique to put on the drawer. There was just so much damage, and I couldn’t get it to fill completely in without kind of leaving a scar and a shadow. So, I glued that applique over where the old one was.

Yellow clamps hold a decorative wood applique on furniture, with wood glue and filler visible nearby.

Priming Before Milk Paint

Before I painted, I brushed on some primer. It was a clear primer called Dixie Belle BOSS. I wanted a nice chippy look on this, and I have found that this helps milk paint chip. You can learn more about creating a chippy paint finish every time with this product in this post.

A hand uses a brush to apply a clear primer to a wooden cabinet door.

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Your Guide to Painting Furniture Like a Boss

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Furniture Makeover Planner Sheets

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Furniture Makeovers
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Milk Painting A Buffet Cabinet

I decided to use Shackteau Interiors Milk Paint. I wanted to use a sage green color for this. So I mixed the colors Coastal Fog with Clarke Pond Green. It was about a five-to-one ratio: five parts Coastal Fog to one and a half parts Clarke Pond Green.

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Check out our posts on how to mix milk paint and mixing milk paint colors together to guide you.

A hand holds a paint cup filled with pale green paint and a paintbrush in front of a painted cabinet.

And then I applied it with our Zibra round brush. I love using this round brush because it gets into the details and the curves so much easier than a flat brush.

A vintage sideboard painted first streaky coat in green with a decorative floral detail and missing drawer handles.

This buffet cabinet took a couple of coats of paint. The first coat looked really spotty and streaky. It did not look very good, but that’s usually the case. The second coat went on way better, with mostly full coverage. Get more tips on how to use milk paint on furniture here.

How to Make Milk Paint Chip

As the coats were drying, I did put a space heater close by to try to get the paint to chip a little bit more. Since I had scuff sanded this, the milk paint wasn’t going to chip as much, and I was kind of bummed about that. The electric heater did help with that.

Distressed light green buffet with five drawers and a cabinet door, against a white wall.

I also scuff sanded the whole surface with 220 grit sandpaper to get the milk paint to chip a little bit more and smooth it out.

Topcoating Milk Paint

And then I topcoated the buffet with hemp oil from Shackteau Interiors. Milk paint is very durable on its own, so it doesn’t have to have a waterbased, oil based or really strong topcoat because it already adheres very well. When it adheres, it adheres. When it chips, it chips.

Hand holding a bottle of Shackteau Interiors hemp oil in front of a distressed green piece of furniture

You can learn the 3 ways to seal milk paint here, including a more detailed guide on how to apply hemp oil.

You might notice that I did not paint the top – I actually stripped it down. Then I applied hemp oil first, and added Annie Sloan Dark Wax next because it wasn’t as dark as I wanted it to be.

A gloved hand wipes oil on wood, showing a contrast between treated and untreated sections.

Hand applying dark wax to a wooden surface with a brush; wax container sits nearby on the table.

And once everything was dry, I attached these cute little glass white knobs. And here is what it looks like now!

Distressed seafoam green sideboard with white knobs and wood top, decorated with glass vases and white flowers.

It’s a little bit rustic and a little bit feminine at the same time. I love this sage green color, it’s so pretty! It really goes well with the vintage rustic look of this makeover.

I also love how the top turned out. It turned out nice, deep and rich just like I wanted, where you can still see some of that pretty mahogany. And that is how to milk paint a buffet cabinet!

A distressed grey green vintage cabinet with white knobs and vases of white flowers on top.

A vintage green buffet with white knobs and a vase of white flowers on top against a plain wall.

Don’t forget to check out these other awesome before and after furniture makeovers from my Furniture friends!! (Click the links below the photos!)

Collage of five old wooden furniture pieces labeled “Before” on a blue and white background.

Painted Dresser With a Stained Top Makeover from Confessions of a Serial DIYer
Octagon Coffee Table Makeover from My Repurposed Life
How to Highlight Furniture Details with Paint from Salvaged Inspirations
Vintage Buffet Makeover – You are here!
Paint Outdated French Provincial Dresser from Petticoat Junktion

More Before and After Makeovers

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