I tried my hand at milk paint tonight (Real Milk Paint).
Prepped and ready
I followed the instructions from company with the ratio provided by Chris’ in a recent post. I was a bit shocked by the “foaminess” or “thickness” of the consistency. My wife said it best when she said it looks like mousse. Having only used General Finishes “milk paint” in the past I was surprised by how this looked. It wipes on fine though.
Is this too thick?
What about this?
In the end I think everything looked ok but I’d like some feedback if you read this before I put on the second coat tomorrow. Here’s how it looked after one coat.
Thanks in advance for help.
While The Glue Dries 
Looks right to me for the first coat. This is how my first coat looked: http://sheworkswood.com/2015/07/08/painting-the-windsor/#jp-carousel-6460
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Great. it’s good to wake up to some positive commentary. We’ll see how coat two looks tonight.
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my first coats are usually really transparent because I go real thin, using the first coat to raise grain. Lightly sand it then add a second and third. The last coat is usually heavy for me so I can really sand it smooth before applying shellac/wax. You’ll be suprised how smooth and glossy you can make it.
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Ok, I guess I’m on the right track. Thanks Shawn. For your top coat, you use shellac?
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The color looks great to me, Shawn. Under ideal circumstances, you should mix the paint then let it sit in the fridge for 30 – 90 min, which will allow the texture to improve and reduce the foam. But in my experience, the foam does not cause major problems…just tougher to apply.
In between every coat, I knock it down with steel wool. Then vacuum and ready for the next coat.
The depth and color will change DRAMATICALLY when you topcoat milkpaint. I use polymerized linseed oil. Tung oil also works well. And a polycryllic works great too (since I know you like that). Shellac would be OK for less trafficked furniture, but if this is the mud bench then I would definitely go with one of the other options.
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Thanks Brian. I did mix and let it sit for about 20 minutes (I couldn’t wait any longer…). The remains are in the fridge now and my plan was to mix up another batch, right in the can, and do the same thing (i.e. mix and let it sit for 20 – 30 minutes). Maybe I should put it back in the fridge this time? What do you think.
As far as the topcoat goes, I have the polycyclic on hand so that’s more my motivation than anything else. I could make up a sample board though with BLO since I think I have some of that too.
Do you wait overnight between coats? It seems like it’s dry almost immediately. I’m thinking I can get a few coats in one day if I start early in the morning. What did you do?
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Hi Shawn,
I don’t have much to add that wasn’t already mentioned above, other than that I used Watco Danish Oil on my storage bench (https://moonlightwoodworker.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/refinishing-a-storage-bench-with-milk-paint/). We all sit on regularly and it has yet to show any signs of wear over the course of a year.
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Hey Jim,
I forgot about that post. Rereading it makes me think I’m doing something wrong though because my consistency was much thicker and yours was quite thin. We’ll see how mine turns out though to see if it the consistency just doesn’t really matter to the end result.
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