So I finally broke down and tried Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint. If you don’t know about Miss Mustard Seed you should check out her website and her very inspiring story.
Milk paint has been around for a long time. I don’t know how long but you feel free to google that if you would like. It’s a paint that’s created with milk, lime and pigments and that’s about all I know about the process of making milk paint.
Upcyclers like milk paint for various reasons but one of main reason I wanted to try it was because I want to be able to get that authentic chippy, peal-y, paint look of old furniture. No matter how good you are at distressing there is something about that chipping paint look you cannot replicate with sand paper and wire brushes.
Milk paint comes as a powder. You mix it with water and stir like crazy to try to get the grit out. You can learn all about mixing it on the Miss Mustard Seed Website. She has awesome videos. I failed miserably to get the grit out so don’t judge when you see the photos. I already know I didn’t do the best job at mixing but it was my first time.
Since it was my first time I didn’t want to start on something big so I picked this spiffy little frame. Looks like it was a Home Interiors Mirror. I like the detail of the scrolls and the gold interior rim, which is where I was hoping to get the chipping I want.
So I mixed up and dove right in, because I’m patient that way. I didn’t sand, or use a primer. I just slapped the paint on and hoped for the best.
The first coat went on like a dream. The paint is a little runnier than normal paint consistency so if you’re going to try it be prepared for that. As I said mine was a little gritty.
But what a pretty blue! Yummy! Yummy!
So then I had to wait for the paint to dry. There’s no pictures of that but it looks like you’d expect. Impaitent toe tapping and a lot of mumbling, “hurry up, hurry up.” Oh, what? You don’t do that? Just me? Huh.
So the paint dried. Yay! And look what happened. Gasp! It chipped and flaked just like I was hoping. right on that glossy gold just like I wanted. The rest of the paint stayed pretty well.
Since I was going for distressed I thought I’d scratch that up a little too. I sued a stir stick with green and scrapped it over the surface. It didn’t take much and 
there was an added bonus of the green chalk paint depositing on the high points which was what I was hoping would happen.
I’m still mulling over if I like the final result but since this was a post about the paint and not the project I’ll wrap it up. The paint did what it claimed and flaked beautifully. I will use the milk paint again. I want to see what it’s like on raw wood.
As for the frame. Stay tuned. I promise to post when I decide if I want to repaint it or if I want to keep the finish.