Milk Paint

I have a confession to make. When I get a notification that someone has bought my milk paint video, I cringe a little. I think the content of the video is solid, but the production quality of my videos has come a long way. I made the video in the beginning of the pandemic right after having to cancel a full year of sold out classes and I jumped into the world of video production with abandon. Turns out I had a lot to learn. Once I get into the new workshop, it’s high on my priority list to reshoot the video. I’ve gotten lots of good reviews on the video, but the perfectionist in me won’t let it rest. For all of you who have purchased the video and been so supportive of it, I owe you one.

I had to get this off my chest because I think of it every time I mix up some paint, which I did recently while repainting the chair from the Lie-Nielsen showroom. You might remember, it’s been 10 years since it went into hard public service and was showing the signs, including a coffee stain where someone had spilled it in the bowl of the seat and let it sit.

When I started using milk paint, I followed Dave Sawyer and Curtis Buchanan’s use of paint made by the Old Fashion Milk Paint Company. It was a revelation in wood finishing. Wood finish is never neutral, it either elevated or diminishes your work, the choice is yours whether you want to pay attention to this vital step. Most of us treat this as an afterthought, it’s not the fun part . When I painted my first chairs, I felt as though it transformed my work and it change the way I looked at what I did with the wood. Here is a picture of the first chair I made, and painted.

Not a great chair, but not terrible for my first try. What I didn’t know, because I had no experience with Milk Paint, was how I stumbled into a very succesful first try. It mixed up easily, went on smoothly and burnished easily. I first painted the chair yellow and then mixed up a bit of yellow and green for the top coat. I don’t remember the names of all the colors, but it was the Old Fashioned Milk Paint company marigold and one of their greens. I think there is a little white in the green as well. Like I said, I was just beginning and it was 25 years ago, so cut me some slack on the bad notes.

From that point on, I realized my experience with this material had been a bit of a fluke. There are lots of pitfalls that can line the path to success with this material. Over the years, I’ve tried to address all the variables, including, mixing techniques, switching brands of paint, application, abrasion and oils. It all makes a difference but as a material, it still seems to hold some surprises.