DIY Milk Paint Guide for Beginners

by Living in a Fixer Upper

Easy

Why paint with milk paint? In a nutshell, it's because it calls for NO PREP WORK. No priming, sanding, dusting...nada. It also dries very quickly - usually 30-60 minutes between coats, and it's a very forgiving paint, hiding even your brush strokes.
Better still, the paint is made of all naturally-found ingredients, such as clay, lime, and earth pigments, which makes it free of toxins and harmful chemicals (VOC-free) and biodegradable. If it's winter, I can still paint with it inside the house with closed windows and be just fine.

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I picked up this buffet table for our dining room at an estate sale for exactly what I'd budgeted for ($75!). It's a sturdy wood piece in great condition with no scratches or missing fixtures. And just look at those sexy legs, eh?

The wood was a dull honey-ish brown color, which was rather 'blah', and I knew the moment I saw it that this would be an awesome piece to paint, and I'd been wanting to experiment with milk paint

I went into this project optimistically, as most of us do when we're rarin' to go on something new and exciting.

There had been many hours reading the Miss Mustard Seed (MMS) blog, watching her videos, watching other videos from people who had used it and their blogs...I felt prepared! But boy oh boy, I was in for a learning curve...

The first hurdle is that milk paint usually comes in a powdered form. You spoon out the amount you need, add water and mix it until it becomes smooth.

I made up a mix and added the bonding agent that prevents the paint from chipping (I will have to try it without the bonding someday tho, as there are some beautiful looks you can get). I used an old Magic Bullet to get it nicely mixed, then let it settle for half and hour to let the bubbles go down. Soon I was happily painting away.

After the first coat of paint had been applied and allowed to dry overnight, I examined the buffet the next day and felt that I seemed to be doing a-ok; the paint was a little on the thin side with coverage on the wood, but from what I had seen and read on the MMS Blog about the subject, I was expecting it to be that way and to need two coats. Better yet, the bonding agent seemed to have done its job as I saw no flaking.

I gave myself some pats on the back for being a fantastic newbie at this milk paint stuff, and got to work on mixing the 2nd coat. This is where it all went downhill...

I applied the second coat and everything looked normal. Yet when I came back an hour later after it had dried to check on it, what do I see but speckles all through the paint!

They didn't seem to be air bubbles, as the paint was still smooth to the touch. Not knowing what else to do, I sanded it all down to the first coat (and some areas frustratingly became thinner than the first coat) and re-tried it with a new brush.

Later I came back to check on it, and same thing!

So I sanded it all again (I got quite a workout with my arms on this project!) and tried with a whole new batch of paint mix. Even before it dried one could tell that I had still had a problem.

To learn from my mistakes and hopefully get to have a much better first-time experience with milk paint (because it IS amazing stuff once you avoid doing what I did!) check out the rest on my blog at dravenmade.blogspot.com. Also feel free to comment and ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them!

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4 comments

Hannah V on Nov 03, 2014
You had me at no prep work! Love the color too :)

2 Reply
- Living in a Fixer Upper on Nov 03, 2014
  @Hannah V lol, yes, no prep work are the magic words for me too! Then the non-toxic to boot and I was sold! :)
  
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Colleen on Nov 06, 2014
Great teaser! Will be going to check out your blog.

1 Reply
- Living in a Fixer Upper on Nov 07, 2014
  @Colleen Awesome! If you decide to take the milk paint dive, send me the project, I'd love to see it! :)
  
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