I’ve never tried Milk Paint before! When my friend Michelle from The Junkyard Goddess offered to send out some samples I jumped at the chance. Milk Paint is all natural and non-toxic. Made from lime, casein (milk protein), calcium carbonate (chalk), and earth pigments.
The colors are intermixable and arrive in a powder form. I wanted a denim like blue to coordinate with the vintage indigo mud cloth I recently bought. Junkyard Goddess has a lovely blue called Aura, but it looked a little cobalt-y. Michelle suggested mixing it with a little Prana, a great lime green. 
Can you see how the yellow in the green is going to pull the blue paint a little more indigo color? Playing with color is really one of my most favorite things.
Below is the “before” picture, with the cute package the sample size came in.
Mix up the paint powder with water and get to work! Milk paint is special in that it has a mind of its own. Depending on what it is applied to, it will either stick like crazy or chip off in little spots and generally give your piece a vintage feel. Makes perfect sense, since it is a heirloom kind of paint. I didn’t want this trunk to look shiny new, so milk paint is the perfect product. It brushed on easily and I could tell right away that it was going to be just the look I wanted. The base coat of old paint on the trunk was a light blue gray. So a light coat of milk paint was all I needed.
Mostly, it stuck really well. On this end of the trunk there wasn’t as much paint. The milk paint immediately started to peel up in these tiny chips, which I LOVE. Often when people use other types of paint and then distress the piece, they get a predictable look of worn away edges and obviously scrubbed and sanded areas. Milk paint gives a MUCH more authentic worn look.
The inside of the trunk was a mess. I initially thought I would simply be able to paint over the existing paint with a latex product. (I want it to be very clean and NOT chippy inside!) Well, circumstances prevented that idea. The old paint was coming off in horrible sheets.
I decided to instead paper the inside with pages from an old science book. Actually a book filled with questions and answers and nifty 60’s illustrations. I added some small casters underneath and now the trunk is a perfect table that rolls easily. I stenciled “Tucson Arizona Territory” on top just for fun, and finished the paint off with a thin coat of wax, which went on easily and buffed out fast.
I will definately use Junkyard Goddess milk paint again. I have a little powder left, so expect more soon!
PS I had planned to sell this trunk, but my son and his girlfriend were visiting from grad school recently and I heard this gasp when he saw it. So the trunk is now in Urbana, Illinois, where it can remind them of Tucson. That makes this momma happy!