Old Fashioned Milk Paint
	Our milk paint is made today with the same basic ingredients used for the past hundreds of years- milk protein, lime and earth pigments. The look and feel of a surface painted today with our milk paint is no different than what was found on furniture, walls and floors in country houses in Colonial America. Click Here For Pricing and Ordering
For almost 30 years, The Old-Fashioned Milk Paint Company has been faithfully producing a genuine Milk Paint as close as possible to the old primitive, home-made paint made on the back porch with skim milk or buttermilk, crushed limestone and pigments found around clay pits, or chimney soot and mineral colors crushed and powdered. This original paint goes back about 6000 and more years as evidence by early cave paintings. This original paint varied quite a bit in color, texture and permanence as no recipe was widely disseminated world wide. Slight variations in the results were quite usual, as evidenced by artifacts found with (a) a fairly heavy film thickness in spite of great age, or, (b) just a thin stain of earth pigment color that penetrated the wood pottery. During our early experiments, we easily reproduced the latter (b) results although we were working to get a good film with strong adhesion as mentioned in (a) above. These experiments resulted in our being able to produce a genuine milk paint as made long ago, with one variation. We found that when using regular liquid milk, the paint would start to gel in a matter of hours. Keeping it in the refrigerator would increase the life of the liquid paint, but not for more than a few days. This was alright for our own use but we were already receiving requests from some of our customers who had purchased a four-poster bed or a Windsor chair that we had made and painted, and wanted some of our unusual paint. Our main business was the making of museum replicas of the 17th & 18th century furniture, and some of the original country pieces had been milk-painted. Naturally, for authenticity, we had to stick with the original ingredients. We were able to make one concession in order to ship our paint anywhere. We used all dry ingredients, still faithful to the history and "that's the end of the story". Genuine milk paint is technically a calcium-caseinate. That means simply that it is made from milk protein, (also known as casein) and lime, (also known as calcium), plus the earth or mineral pigments. There are casein paints of many varieties as well as casein glues and adhesive coatings. About a hundred years ago in Germany a casein paint was made using formaldehyde instead of lime. Another formula used borax instead of lime. Still another used additives like synthetic plastics such as acrylics, vinyls or acetates, and the list goes on and on. Many of these formulations are good paints, as are oil and latex. But they are NOT milk paints.
Available Colors: Barn Red Salem Red Pumpkin Marigold Yellow Mustard Bayberry Green Tavern Green Sea Green Lexington Green Federal Blue Soldier Blue Slate Pitch Black Buttermilk Oyster White Snow White CLICK HERE FOR COLOR CHART	Also Available:
	Extra Bond: A concentrated acrylic. Can be mixed with a first coat of Milk Paint to promote adhesion to surfaces other than bare wood. Non-toxic. Comes in pints and quarts. MSDS
	Clear Coat: A water-borne acrylic finish. Put on as a top-coat over Milk Paint, it dries to a clear and satin finish, and helps prevents water spotting. Scuff resistant. Excellent for woodwork and most furniture applications. Non-toxic. Comes in quarts and gallons. MSDS
	Antique Crackle: To achieve an immediate antique look on surfaces painted with Milk Paint and some other water based finishes.This natural gelatin product is brushed on before the final coat of paint for an instant "alligator" or crackled look. Non-toxic. FDA approved mildewcide. Comes in pints, quarts, and gallons. MSDS