Milk Painted Blanket Chest

I have been looking for a project to try this technique on and I finally found the time to do it. If you have ever seen the work of Michael Cullen this may seem familiar. I love the look of a textured finish on a piece of furniture so hear it is. This is a blanket chest made from maple with walnut used on the top and base. Before assembling the box the parts were carved to give it some movement. After assembly it was painted with two coats of dark gray milk paint and then two coats of light gray. A light sanding with 320 grit brings the dark color out on the high spots. I buffed it with 4x steel wool and sprayed it with lacquer including the inside. All the walnut was finished with shellac. I added some red cedar to cover the plywood bottom on the inside. As a little side note the maple used for this was destined for firewood. My neighbor had a tree cut down and she gave the logs to her son in-law for fire wood. The logs were so large (some as large as 50+" in Dia.) he gave up on them and they asked if I wanted them. Well as it so happens a 36” chainsaw and a friend with a saw mill and I got a few hundred board feet of maple lumber. The tree was dying so as you see there is some spalting in some of the wood