Frequently Asked Questions
This Question and Answer page is provided at the courtesy of Dwayne Siever owner and creator of The Real Milk Paint Co. Mr. Siever has over 15 years experience restoring fine antique furniture. His shop specializes in seamless patching, fabrication of missing parts, as well as finish matching and repair.
Real Milk Paint®
Q. I was wondering if you had tested just how long milk paint will last in powdered form?
A. It will last three years - maybe longer. It tends to lose some of its adhesive qualities over time and does not stick as well. If you do not put on too many layers and top coat with a finish, you should be fine.
Q. Can your paint be used on floors? What if I added the Ultra Bond to it? Would that make it durable enough for floors?
A. It is best if used on raw wood floors. If over a finish, Ultra Bond will make it stick but it may be tough enough to stand up to the wear.
Q. I was painting in my garage with your product…it was cold, maybe below freezing, would this prevent crackle from happening with your crackle finish?
A. Milk Paint does not work well in freezing temperatures because it is water based. The water tends to freeze and prevent evaporation. Without evaporation the shrinkage that occurs to make the paint crackle will not occur.
Q. Why doesn't Real Milk Paint ® turn to a jell after a day like another brand?
A. The Real Milk Paint Co. uses only the highest quality ingredients without any synthetic extenders or preservatives. We found in our testing to develop our formula when we used low grade powdered milk, gelling occurred every time. Does a gallon of milk spoil in your refrigerator after a day? Then why should your milk paint? Our formula uses only highest quality purified casein, pharmaceutical grade lime, a food grade thickener and pigments. Real Milk Paint® will last 2 weeks after mixed with water. If you give Real Milk Paint® a try, I believe you will find it to be the best in the industry.
Q. What is the recommended type of wood putty for nail hole and gouges under Real Milk Paint ®?
A. We recommend using PL Fix Wood Patch available at Lowe's. The solvent base type that is made with real wood pulp. We have found this brand to work well. Others may work as well, just do an experiment on scrap wood before application to the project.
Q. Is there a simple home test that can be made to determine if a wooden object has been painted with milk paint?
A. If the milk paint is old, over a year, paint remover will not touch it. There were many verbal formula's passed down, which resulted in some milk paint being tougher than others. Paint remover is still a good test.
Q. We are interested in utilizing Milk Paint on our kitchen cabinets. What is the approximate square footage coverage of 1 quart of Milk Paint. Also, how is the Milk Paint shipped and approximately what is the shipping time?
A. Thanks for your interest, coverage is approximately 70 square feet per quart. Raw wood will need two coats if you want an opaque surface. Orders received before 12pm are shipped the same day. We ship using UPS or parcel post if you have a P.O. box.
Q. Hi, Will milk paint stick to dry wall?
A. Yes, milk paint will stick to dry wall no problem but some joint compounds contain latex and this may cause some crackling. It would be best to add Ultra Bond to the first coat of milk paint.
Q. I have a question about water spots.
A. Almost all paints and finishes require 30 days to a full cure. Milk paint is unusual in that it remains vapor permeable allowing moisture to continue to pass though the paint through out its life time. As a result it continues to get tougher the longer the paint stays exposed to the air. Milk paint is also called Calcium Caseinate. The unique combination of Calcium (lime) and Casein (milk protein) continues to calcify or oxidize as it cures converting to a cementious type coating. So if two week old milk paint gets splashed with water you may get some water spots. The older the paint gets - say 6 month to a year - the less likely it is to spot. In between you can give the paint a coat of paste wax, which will offer some protection, but still allows the paint to cure. I hope I have cleared the fog, please e-mail with more questions. I am glad to help.
Removing Milk Paint
Q. Greetings, I have a question to ask you. My sister has a small chest that she has tried to strip. She has come up against a very hard paint, that reminds me of milk paint. What is the best way to strip this off, if it is old milk paint?
A. Yes, there is a way. We have just started to offer a milk paint remover in powder form, just add water. This is probably the easiest way to remove milk paint, because it is a protein base, conventional removers won't touch it, as your sister found out. The price of the powder milk paint remover is $11.95 and will make a half gallon. Thanks for dropping me a line, I am always happy to answer questions. If you decide you need the remover give us a call at 1-800-339-9748.
Distressed Look and Crackle Finish
Q. I have some pine chairs that I want to refinish for the kitchen. I realize I will have to sand and clean them before painting them with milk paint. Then how do I go about getting that "worn, antique" look afterwards? I want to paint them black and have some worn places on the backs and legs of them. Also, do I need to put any kind of sealer on the chairs when I'm finished?
A. There are many ways of distressing your furniture. Steel wool and scotch bright work well. The paint can be rubbed away while it is still wet. Also moistening the steel wool or scotch bright and rubbing back through the paint. Experimentation is the best teacher. I recommend sealing with tung oil or something similar.
Q. Is white milk paint good to use to get that sanded (worn edges) distressed look on furniture?
A. Yes, you can get the washed worn look with milk paint. The first coat of paint usually soaks into the wood allowing some grain to show. The second part would require that you do some rubbing with steel wool while the paint is still wet to get the raw corners. Many people develop their own techniques for distressing.
Q. If you leave a painted piece in the sun or apply heat can you get the paint to crack?
A. If you put the piece in the sun with a full thick coat, it will crackle with out using a crackle agent. A heat gun will also work for controlled area crackling. If the paint gets too thin it can be thickened with dry powder milk.
Safety
Q. I am doing a project that requires me to put paint directly on my skin, do you think that it would be safe to use this paint for this purpose?
A. Milk paint contains lime, it has the potential to mildly burn skin, just like cement mortar mix. We have not had any reports as to our product burning anyone still the possibility exists.
Q. I want to use milk paint to cover a wicker bassinet that I am weaving. Because of my concerns for the safety of any babies that are in the bassinet, is this milk paint safe for this use. A friend used milk paint to cover hers. I want to be sure that this is non-toxic for children or pets.
A. Yes, our milk paint is non-toxic and child safe. Please also see our Facts page.
Q. I assume since these are non-toxic, they are safe for children to use and would that be once they have been mixed or can elementary children mix these paints?
A. Yes, our paints are non-toxic and environmentally safe, however our paint does contain calcium hydroxide (lime), this is a vital ingredient. Lime can burn the skin and eyes. It is a very mild alkali. We have never had a problem and do not anticipate one. At some of our shows we allow children to paint their own basket 8 years and up. Child safe or not? I leave the final judgement up to the purchaser.
Colors and Consistency
Q. I am so happy I found you online! I remember my great grandmother making milk paint, and I am looking for a non toxic way to paint my walls. I personally have never used milk paint, but I would like to try it. I was wondering if you can mix the powders together to achieve other colors, or add white to lighten the colors. Also, my husband is a flooring contractor, and lots of people are asking to have their hardwood floors dyed. Will the color pigments work for that? Also, will they be harder to sand out if the owner wants a color change?
A. I will try to cover your questions here, or you can call me at 1-800-339-9748. All of the powder colors can be inter-mixed to create any color you desire. The powder colors (pigments) will not stick to anything by themselves, they need a binder added to them. The milk paint base is one such binder. Shellac, varnish, lacquer can also be used as binders. The milk paint base is white, so you would only have to add as much pigment as you wanted to get a pastel color. We offer 27 colors of pigments. We also prepackage the milk paint in 28 colors. From those 28 colors of milk paint and pigments just about any color can be created. Pigments are not stains, they will not dissolve in any solvent. They will stay suspended in a binder and lay on the surface. Pigment could be used on a floor but would make an opaque finish, more like paint, depending on how much pigment was added to the finish. If I have you totally confused, just give me a call.
Q. I'm looking for Navy Blue milk paint. Do you have that color?
A. We have Union Blue, it is a very dark blue. All of our colors can be intermixed to create custom colors. You add white to lighten, black to darken a color.
Q. Which of the pigments shown correspond to the milk paints offered? I am interested in yellow ochre, red, blue and white. What would be the difference between Titanium Dioxide and Chalk whites?
A. We offer the milk paint prepackaged in 28 colors, just add water and mix. The pigments are in powder form, they do not have any binding agent to hold them to a surface. Pigment can then be added to a binder, shellac, lacquer, varnish or milk paint. There are two different products. Titanium dioxide is the pigment commonly used as the color for white paint. Chalk whiting is sometimes used as a filler but was also used as a colorant in early paints, titanium dioxide was not available. Chalk whiting has a gray cast and is not as opaque as titanium. I hope I covered everything, feel free to call 1-800-339-9748.
Q. Is it possible to get milk paint in a color that looks almost white but has a pinch of red in it, so it is the slightest shade of pink?
A. Yes it is possible. You would have to start with white as your base, then add red to it and gradually work up to the color you want.
Q. I am using the "Peacock" color milk paint and the powder mostly rejects the water for quite some time before finally dissolving into paint. What can I do?
A. Certain colors such as the blues, Bright Red and Salmon have a high surface tension and do not like to mix with water easily. If you are stuck in a bind you may be able to find the answer right in your bathroom. Take a look at the ingredients on the liquid hand soap. Look for Sodium Laureth Sulfate or Ammonium Laureth Sulfate. It should be the second or third ingredient. Add a couple of drops of the liquid soap per pint to the milk paint. This will break the surface tension much like oily dishes in dish soap and water. It will not effect the performance of the paint in this small quantity as milk paint is an emulsion and readily accepts other ingredients. Another alternative we have just introduced is Anti-Foam. This food grade additive will out perform liquid hand soaps and make the milk paint much smoother.
Q. Would you have an idea on the colors to mix to achieve the color of a Mahogany color paint that was used on Windsor chairs in late 18th and early 19th Century?
A. If you use our Bright Red milk paint then a raw umber glaze over top this will be close. The only technique to consider would be to lightly seal the Bright Red with a thin cut of shellac maybe a 2 pound cut. Make it thin enough so it all soaks in and allow to dry. Then use the raw umber glaze over the shellac. Milk Paint is very porous so sometimes it gets too dark with a glaze applied directly. The shellac acts as a barrier coat. Do some test on scrap wood and I am sure you will find the right technique quickly.
Q. I have been looking for your paints for about a year. I had seen them before years ago but couldn't find them. I contacted a place called the Stockade Wood and Craft Supply and told them I was looking for what I had thought was called "buttermilk paints" and they corrected me telling me the name was "milk paint" and I looked you up on a general search on AOL under "milk paint." I make wooden boxes and out of pine often trying to use older wood I find. My wife then paints a design on them (www.woota.com) and we normally cover them with a dull polyurethane. We are using more paint on several of the boxes now and I thought your paint would be an excellent choice because the natural look of it looks so great, subtle, etc. I just have a couple of simple questions. First, when mixing the paints, I guess you can adjust the wash effect or translucency. And second, we top coat them with a topcoat of satin polyurethane. Does the acrylic kind cover your product as good as the oil based kind? And, lastly, my wife's designs are normally done in Hunt water-based silk screen paints. Do they adhere to your paints?
A. I hope I can answer all of your questions sufficiently here. Our paint package is in powder form, so you have total control over the opacity by adding more or less water. You can top coat our paint with any other paint as long as the milk paint is dry, 3 to 4 hours to be cautious. The milk paint continues to get tougher with exposure to moisture, you may find you do not need to top coat with polyurethane. You can always call with questions 1-800-339-9748, looking forward to speaking with you.
Q. Hello, We are wanting to repaint an interior room over an existing off-white water base latex paint. We are looking for a translucent, subtle wash effect. We're concerned that if we thin the milk paint excessively we will dilute the binder and the project will fail. Can you advise us on how to achieve varying levels of translucency?
A. First you should add Ultra Bond to the milk paint, then there should not be a problem with diluting too much. Then you could 1) Dilute the milk paint then apply as usual. 2) Apply full strength, then use a damp sponge to wipe back through the paint to the desired effect. The milk paint can be worked for some time. 3) You may also like to try applying the paint with the damp sponge. A combination of all of the above may work well, try experimenting on some cardboard first. Hope this helps.
Q. Milk paint may be what I am looking for but I remember a television show (HGTV, or Discovery) talking about a chalk paint. It is very chalky looking for painting furniture, picture frames, etc. to give that old world look. It seemed to be thick yet somewhat sheer or transparent. It was shown in white, baby blue or very pale green. Can you give me some guidance as to what I am looking for? I want to paint over an old piece of furniture but I want to sand it in places for the under color to show through.
A. Milk paint can be made up fresh with chalk whiting as a filler. The filler gives the milk paint some body. The blue or green color would be achieved by adding the appropriate color pigment to the mix. We do not offer a prepackaged milk paint that has all the ingredients you described. However we can provide a formula and the ingredients, you would have do the mixing. Painting over an existing finish can be tricky. Please call for more specific instruction.
Tung Oil, Wax, and Top Coating
Q. We bought a ton of your tung oil for our home that we recently 'finished'. We have a final bit of trim to do yet. We have quite a few gallons of light tung oil left, but ran out of the dark. I need just a little to get done. Is there a way to get the effect of the dark by tinting the light? My home is rustic, and the wood varies quite a bit in color, so it just has to be close. I hate to have so much oil sitting around and would like to use up what I have. I have lots of black walnut trees, and wonder if the tannin might be used, or I guess your aniline dye would be good, too?
A. You would need an oil soluble dye stain to add to the pure tung oil. The walnut can make a water base stain but it would not mix with the oil. You can also add up to a quart per gallon of minwax oil stain.
Q. We are going to be painting our kitchen cabinets with Real Milk Paint ®. Do you recommend a top coat of finish and wax?
A. We do recommend a finish over Real Milk Paint ® in kitchens, bathrooms and on walls that will receive a lot of traffic or require frequent cleaning. Milk paint is a porous paint and will collect dirt. To keep a matte flat finish the Pure Tung Oil works well thinned 1 to 1 with solvent, apply at least two coats. If you have chosen a light color for your project such as Cream, White or Pearl then an acrylic finish would be recommended. Pure Tung Oil has a natural amber color and will tend to give light colors a yellow cast. Acrylics do not yellow over time and would be a better choice for light colors. Most acrylic finishes are water base so just be sure the milk paint is very dry before application and apply a thin coat the first time. You can always add another coat. If the acrylic is too thick you may be able to thin it some with water, just read the can first. Waxing would come after the finish and would add sheen to the finish. Wax is a soft finish meaning it does not resist water well and wears away. So I do not recommend a wax only finish on surfaces that receive hard wear.
Q. How long long should I allow your Tung oil to dry before moving furniture back on it - specifically summer time with 75% humidity?
A. Generally 15 to 30 days is what we recommend. You can speed it up by buffing with a high speed buffer after 10 days. Also you can move furniture on the floor, just be sure to have plastic or metal floor glides under the wooden feet. This will prevent the oil from being drawn up into the end of the feet then leaving a spot on the floor.
Q. I was reading about tung oil and have a question. I purchased an old china cabinet hutch. It is all wood. The bottom has some dings. It looks like something scrapped against the bottom and it took off the stain. It is a mahogany and darker brown finish. I'd like to know if I can just put some tung oil over the damaged wood. Will it change the color? Also, which color tung oil would I use?
A. Pure Tung Oil is not very good as a touch up oil. It will soak into the raw wood areas but where there is finish on the wood it will leave a frosted look on top of the wood. A better product would be our Soapstone Sealer and Wood Wax. This product contains walnut oil which will seal the wood and wax that will give a low luster sheen to the finished areas.
Q. Hi...I just stripped an old (260 years) wall that was originally painted with milk paint plus, according to my sister, blood. It is certainly the right color and as I'm not in a part of the world where there is red clay, I cannot imagine how else they achieved the color. Anyway, what is the best thing to put on the surface? Paste wax, urethane, tung oil? The color is definitely not uniform (which is OK) but I want to protect it from dirt, etc.
A. I have read many secondary accounts that claim paint was made from blood, without having the paint analyzed it is hard to say for sure. Could be red lead? Red lead is one of the oldest manufactured pigments made by the corroding of lead in acid. Wax is a good finish over your piece, it may make it slightly darker, but can also be removed easily with mineral spirits. It will offer protection from moisture and can be re-applied periodically. Tung oil and other solvent finishes are more permanent. I have used both, depending on what I was trying to achieve.
Q. Can your products be mixed with other eco-friendly products?
A. Here's a great lesson learned from one of our newest customers...
Click to enlarge
Long story short, I made a panicked run to the hardware store and got some "real" thinner, poured it in a pan and used a mop to "scrub" the glue off the floor. Gave everything a good wipe down and started over using regular old mineral spirits and Tung Oil and everything seems to be OK. Cost me a half-gallon of Tung Oil and probably gave me a few more gray hairs but it could have been worse..."
Still have questions?
Email your questions and comments to: dosiever@realmilkpaint.com.
View the wikipedia information for oxalic acid.