Our Facebook Group, “Move Mountains With Milk Paint” is a bustling online community where creatives and Milk Paint lovers alike share their projects, get answers to questions and are inspired by the work of others.

Every Friday, we feature a project refinished by one of our talented group members. This week, we’d like to introduce you to Morgan Adams of Revivals Furniture Co. in Arlington, Iowa. She began her furniture business when she was just 16 years old and still in high school! Not only does Morgan refinish furniture, she BUILDS it too!

Her story is incredible, and we’re so excited to not only highlight a gorgeous Jacobean-style buffet she refinished recently, but give you a glimpse into her world in the process.

Prep and Repair Work

Before Morgan could begin work on her beautiful walnut buffet, she needed to make lots of repairs. She rebuilt the drawer boxes and built new doors. To keep the charm of the piece, she carefully peeled off the original appliqués and reattached them to the new doors.

Rebuilding new doors is right within Morgan’s wheelhouse because she actually builds her own furniture in addition to refinish existing pieces. (Cool, right?) We’ll show you some of her work further on in this post, but for now, let’s get back to prep work!

We recommend you make any repairs to your projects before you start refinishing them as well. Once repairs are made, and your piece is structurally sound, you need to prep it to accept a new Miss Mustard Seed’s® Milk Paint finish. We’ve written all about prep work, including how to avoid bleed-through, in these blog posts:

Refinishing the Buffet

Once Morgan’s buffet was prepped and repaired, she whipped up a batch of Typewriter. This color is named after and inspired by the soft black metal of antique and vintage typewriters.

Morgan likes to use Miss Mustard Seed’s® Milk Paint on her projects because she wants finishes that don’t contain a lot of chemicals. She also appreciates how our products provide an authentically aged finish, on both new and old pieces!

If you’d like some tips for mixing up a batch of Typewriter (or any of our gorgeous colors) for your next project, click over to this blog post.

After some distressing, Morgan’s results were absolutely gorgeous!

She refinished the top in “Briarsmoke” stain by Varathane to bring out the deep walnut color of the wood. Wasn’t it such a good choice up against the Typewriter Milk Paint?

To seal her piece (top and bottom), Morgan sprayed a clear polyurethane in a Satin finish by Minwax using a paint sprayer. To ensure compatibility, Morgan tested this topcoat before she applied it to her entire piece.

That’s a really good tip that we recommend to you as well. We can’t guarantee, speak to or help with finishes outside our line and how compatible they are with our products. If you venture outside our line, make sure you test your entire project from start to finish on a scrap before doing it on your good piece to ensure you like the results.

Here’s a super fun Tik-Tok video of the refinishing process from Morgan’s account:

Typewriter and Natural Wood - A Winning Combination

If you are a furniture refinisher, and are looking for a slam dunk style for your next project, consider Morgan’s combination of Typewriter Milk Paint and natural wood.

We feature this style frequently on our social media channels, and it’s always a big hit every time. A quick scroll through our Instagram feed will yield a Typewriter piece with natural wood on just about every line!

The same is true for our Facebook page! Look at these beautiful pieces refinished by MMS Milk Paint Retailer, The Shabby Shrub, Furniture Refinisher, Laura Cobb of Redhead Refinishings and Walessa of A Life Refurbished.

We hope Morgan and these other fabulous refinishers have inspired you to give the Typewriter and wood design a try!

Speaking of Morgan again, let’s dive into her hand-made furniture!

Morgan’s Hand-Made Furniture

Aside from being a talented refinisher, Morgan also builds furniture from scratch.

Right?! Isn’t she incredible? Here are a few more of her hand-made pieces. The black piece on the left is finished in Typewriter, and the one on the right is in Mora.

A Retail Space and a Corn Crib House

As if Morgan wasn’t already super cool with her furniture building skills, she lives on a gorgeous farm in Arlington, Iowa that her husband bought from his family in 2014. . There’s an old barn on the property that is going to be taken down so Morgan can build a retail space!

Together, they renovated the corn crib and turned it into their home. It’s absolutely incredible! Enjoy her tour on Tik-Tok.

Their corn crib home was even featured in the 2021 issue of “Life in Eastern Iowa”. Give it a read and learn more about her fascinating life!

“Have fun and be creative with your space. Don’t work on making a ‘Pinterest perfect’ home. Create a space that works for you and your future goals.” - Morgan Adams

Future Projects

Morgan and her husband have their eye on quite a few future projects. They want to build a house on the farm and a retail space for Morgan’s business. She also wants to restore the farm’s original 1920’s Hoosier cabinet. Morgan says that it’s currently in miserable shape, and she can’t wait to bring it back to life! It will sit in the kitchen of her future house, and we can’t wait to see it when she’s finished.

Follow Revivals Furniture Co.

Facebook

Instagram

Tik-Tok

Email

Follow Us On Instagram!