How to use Traditional Milk Paint on Hand-made Furniture

In my above video I show how I mix and apply traditional milk paint and natural color pigment to a dovetail tool chest.

A couple years ago traditional furniture maker Jerome Bias shared with me his method for painting with traditional milk paint. Although I don’t stick with his recipe & instructions every time, I still refer to them often…and I’m going to share it with you here. Thanks Jerome! Here’s a link to the photo gallery of Jerome’s hand made furniture.

LINKS TO ITEMS THAT YOU’LL NEED

I’m often asked about the products that I use in my videos, so here’s what I used (with links to the best prices I found):

• White “Old-Fashioned Milk Paint”
• Light Yellow Ocher earth pitments (100 g). Here is another brand.
• Foam Paint Brush Set
• 220 grit wet sandpaper

Here are some products that I usually use as top coats, but were not used in the above video, or were mentioned in Jerome’s instructions:

• Clear Shellac
• Boiled Linseed Oil (goes under the shellac)
• Denatured Alcohol (for thinning the shellac)
• flat 1″ or 1.5″ taklon artist paintbrush
• Minwax Antique Oil Finish (used instead of shellac & boiled linseed oil. I loved it’s sheen and simple application)
• Mylands Traditional Wax Polish (used on top of everything, as final protection and polish)

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Here are some photos of my tool chest that I recently finished:

On this particular tool chest I used several coats of Minwax Antique Oil finish as a top coat, followed by Mylands wax polish.

I absolutely love the rustic antique finish that milk paint provides!

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