History of The Real Milk Paint Company
The Real Milk Paint Company was started while I was working on a European pine wardrobe for our home. I was repairing the wardrobe with new feet and crown molding. Since it was pine and already stripped, it was a perfect candidate for paint.
I got an inspiration and told my wife that I was going to make milk paint from scratch to paint it. She thought I was nuts, like with so many of my adventures. At that time one did not have the option to "Google" information, so I bought some old formula books for furniture finishing. Inside those dusty covers were some milk paint formulas. Many of them contained strange ingredients like "litharge" and "tallow." Not satisfied with what I found, my search went on, until I found a skim milk formula that contained lime. I mixed some blue pigment with the lime and milk for the body of the cabinet, and used yellow ochre for the raised panels. The results were fantastic, and we still use the wardrobe as television cabinet today.
The inspiration for the company came from an article about Lillian Vernon, whose mail order company started at her kitchen table with monogrammed leather purses. I knew that paint pigments were difficult to resource and that other people may be interested as well. Soon I assembled a number of different pigments colors. We had a friend design a simple pigment swatch brochure. On the back I printed the simple formula I used to make paint for the wardrobe.
It did not take long for me to realize that people wanted milk paint, but they did not want to have to make it from scratch. After a year of experimenting with dry powdered milk products, I found the right formula. The new formula made a better milk paint then the original homemade formula. An antique furniture show seemed like the right place to introduce this new product. That weekend launched the beginnings of The Real Milk Paint Co. The total sales were over $1,000.00 of dry powdered Real Milk Paint.
That was when the Real Milk Paint Company was born. Today we still mix each batch by hand. Attention to detail and the best customer service is our highest aim. "Do unto other as you would have done to you" may seem old or cliché but we do our best to make it apply everyday.