Metal Milk Painted Cart in Pink

Milk paint has this wonderful ability to keep you humble…

Just when you think you have it mastered, it will jump out and do precisely the opposite of what you expect! The good news is that whatever happens, the colors are delicious.

I’ve long wanted to experiment with Old Fashioned Milk Paint on metal and choose to redo this vintage typing cart. I wanted a “been in the garage for 30 years” effect…didn’t want it to look shiny and new and I thought this rusty top would poke through paint beautifully.

Just to be extra sure the paint would chip away over the rust, I used my new Daddy Van’s Beeswax puck over the rusty spots and along an edge or two on the legs that also had some corrosion.

I was envisioning a cart that had been painted in the 50’s sometime. I didn’t do all the undersides and purposely did a bit of a slapdash job. I mixed mostly Snow White with a smidge of Salem Red to get a very soft pink.

I did two coats and waited…and nothing happened. I tried a little bit of sanding to see if I could encourage a chip. I succeeded in getting some leftover dark paint dust from my sanding sponge on to the texture but no chips.

Sometimes it has to be applied thick before it starts to go nuts chipping.  It was feeling not quite pink enough, so I added in a little more red and did a third coat and waited…

I even used a hairdryer on both the top and underside of the metal and put it outside in the sun hoping that the metal expanding would gimme SOMETHING.

I got a little crazing and one small chip.  Sometimes you just gotta let Milk Paint do its own damn thing and get out of the way! Evidently this cart just wants to be PINK.  I expect that given time, the rust will start poking out on its own.

I got out the Daddy Van’s Cafe Noir wax and added some “dirt” on to the finish.

I am really not a Pink Person. I think most of us look at a sweet ballerina pink like this and imagine it needs to be styled all girly and sweet with roses and little birdies. While certainly you CAN do that, I wanted to try it out in other more modern ways.

Looks great with any variety of sunset paintings you might find in a second hand store!

Here it is gone a little funky with my favorite Junkyard Angel and vintage teal toolbox.  I would love to see it all dressed up as a bar cart with brass utensils and sparkly glass too!

How would you style a pink cart? Leave a comment below!