Real Milk Paint Color Mixing combinations

Mix Classic 1870’s Color Combinations

This guide below is reproduced from Dicks Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes by William B. Dick and is out of print.

We have found this chart useful as a guide in color mixing. Hopefully you will too.

Find out more about painting techniques with our painting resources section.

Color Mixing

In mixing different colored paints to produce a more desired tint, it is best to have the principal ingredient thick, and then add to it the other paints thinner.

The following table shows the combination of colors required to produce the listed tints. The first named color is the principal ingredient. The additional colors follow in order of their importance. Thus, in mixing a limestone tint; white is the principal ingredient and red is the color of which least is needed.

The exact proportions of each depend on the shade of color desired. Have fun experimenting and creating different shades of nontoxic baby safe wood paint, Real Milk Paint.

DESIRED TINT

* Use Bright Red
** Hard to say what this was as lake refers to natural dyestuff – probably a red color
*** Also known as Alizarin – source of the dye color Turkey Red