Campaign chest #2!

Ok. So now the first campaign debacle.  This is the Baker piece. Scored big time on this one. 15 bucks!  Had no idea until I did some research. It's a well made piece, obviously, that had belonged to the sellers mother.  People, it has been sitting in the garage for months. I just couldn't decide what color to do. I will be keeping this piece because it is such a nice quality.

The wood is bleached walnut. And it needed some TLC. If the wood was great, I would have have kept it natural. So all you wood people, don't hate! I love me some good wood and don't just take a brush to every piece of furniture I see. Some pieces I refuse to paint. So there! pfffffft!

I thought I would try my new milk paint since I sanded this puppy down to bare wood. Or so I thought.

And here is where the debacle begins. 

Thought I would try the nice blue. The drawer looks nice eh? So after sanding and a coat of wax, this is what I was left with. Um, no. Not the look I was going for. 

Way toooooo chippy. Antique, yes. 60's vintage, no. 

Sigh. Break out the sander and start over. Thank god milk paint sands off easily.

The drawer fronts actually have some nice wood grain going on. I decided to keep those and stained them a dark walnut. The wood on the top was just not good quality, trust me. The grain was blotchy and wonky. I tried staining it, but it looked awful.  So I will paint everything but the drawers. 

 They cleaned up nicely!

Now the dilemma. I still cant decide on a color. This will have to be a semi or glossy finish. 

I had thought about an oil based white in glossy, but if I don't like it, it will be too difficult to just

"paint over".  Black seems, well, too severe. Gray, too blah. Red, getting away from red in the house cuz I'm tired of it. Green, nah. See what I mean?  I can't decide. 

Any input would be welcomed.  I plan on redoing my living room by using some gray on the walls

and some sort of blue (anything from aqua to peacock,,,,haven't decided on that either!) for the other color.

                                      PART II..........after reading a few comments:

                                                         So after reading Rachel's comment, I decided to try out MS                   "Plumage" with a little Lagoon mixed in. Here it is on the edges.   ?????

The color above is without the flash.  The pic below, the flash washed out.

 See what I mean about the wood on the top????  Looks like a map of the world.

After stripping off the other paint and sanding with a 220, I coated the bare wood with this seal coat.
It makes all the difference when it's time to paint. The paint goes on so much easier than on bare wood.  The finish will look smoother as well.  In fact, any time you stain wood, you should use
a seal coat to lock in your stain prior to applying your finishers. This will not affect the top finish.

And Lesley, I agree, yellow would be very pretty as well! Especially with the gray.
There are so many great colors! I'm still on the fence.
I think I will go peruse the Ben Moore paint selections tomorrow and see if anything
jumps out at me!
Thanks everyone.....

And here is the finished piece! Read and see more here