You might wonder what goes through my head while I’m perusing the thrift store. Well, you might think of Dory from Finding Nemo, but actually, I’m pretty picky. Let’s take a look at this vintage farmhouse butter churn that followed me home. tsk.

Well, apparently, I am ever so drawn to butter churns. I already have two so what would one more hurt, right? Just roll with it, K? In my defense, one of my butter churns is a family heirloom.

However, the other one isn’t an heirloom per say, but a thrifted find paired with a walking stick.

Both of those are of the crock variety, whereas this one is solid pine wood.

DIY TIME

First, as you can imagine I was smitten with the shape of this churn. However, I was not impressed with how it was finished. Kinda cutesy with a whole lotta chunky brush strokes. So, I break out my sander and relieve this poor thing of it’s hot mess-ness bondage. tee hee.

What you’re looking at is a layer of primer and two heavy coats of paint. This seemed to take forever to get it down to raw wood, but here we are…

NEXT STEPS

I realize you can’t totally tell from pic that this looked too new when I bought it. The corners were square the wood has no flaws, especially after I sanded. To remedy that, I rounded corners over with my sander and banged it up a bit with my tools. Why? It creates a story that I want to add to my home.

You can see how I used the same technique in my antique sign tutorial HERE or in the video below.

Afterward, once all that is done, I use a Hickory Gel Stain to create a base coat. If you think about it, most antiques have layers of love, whether it’s lacquers, paint, rust or just grime.

As soon as that stain cures, I add color fun with a wash of paint, followed by aging with two different colored waxes.

THE REVEAL

Here is my farmhouse butter churn all layered up and ready for a new life as an “antique”.

This was fun! Did you notice the bands I added with wax? If you look at wooden antique butter churns, they almost all have either metal or wooden bands around them. Mine didn’t have that action going on, so I created the illusion.

I have to ask, are you surprised at the difference between the before and the after? It was just a matter of starting over and creating a story with layers and wear. I hope you are feeling inspired.

Also, do pin and share my farmhouse butter churn makeover. I know there are many more fun rescues just waiting at the thrift store.

UP NEXT

Up next, I’ll be sharing some thoughts. Check it out HERE.

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Also, more DIY projects like my farmhouse butter churn: