Using Untinted Milk Paint Base

I am an official Old Fashioned Milk Paint Brand Blogger and an authorized retailer of their products. Although I do sometimes receive product in exchange for posts, this time I used mostly products I paid for. I carry untinted milk paint base in my Tucson, AZ shop, Riveted.

Old Fashioned Milk Paint is one of those creative products that are fun to play with. For ultimate satisfaction, it is important to be able to “go with the flow” and let the product do what it wants to without too much of a preconceived notion of how it will turn out.  One of the ways to extend the creativity, is to literally make your own colors using powdered pigments in OFMP’s untinted milk paint base.

I purchased a few pigment colors from Earth Pigments and my untinted Milk Paint Base from Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company. It is recommended to add 10-15% pigment to base by volume for the kind of pigment I used. (Purple Violet is a primary pigment) 

Using a little kitchen scale, I “zeroed out” the weight of my bowl. That is what that “Tare” button is for….

I measured out 40 grams of untinted milk paint base.

Then added 4 more grams of the Violet Purple pigment. No math. Phew. (this turned out to be a little pale so I added more purple)

Initially, I painted on a rough looking coat of Federal Blue Milk Paint, over the spray painted dresser. It was covered in a drippy metallic gray. I sanded just a little, to remove some of the drips. All of my subsequent paint layers are painted like this. Not solid coverage, but layers and missed spots. The perfect technique for imperfection!

I did not use Extra Bond on this project as I wanted some chipping and my initial tests showed the milk paint was adhering to the spray paint pretty well. (This test can be deceptive. One coat of Milk Paint is likely to stick. It is the 2-4 extra coats that are more likely to pull off down to the spray paint…we learn this later)

My first layer of custom tint is in the photo above. It was more pink than purple. I added more pigment to the untinted Milk Paint base and kept going.

 

Eventually, I got here. Some chippiness was happening. It is hard to photo, but some of the pink/purple paint had a translucent, milky quality to it that I suspect means I could have added more pigment to the untinted milk paint base. But I liked the effect. I clear waxed the dresser with DaddyVan‘s wax  and then added some white wax especially over chips to accent the chip and mitigate the metallic spray paint color. (The white wax was something I got on clearance somewhere. It was too thick and I was not impressed. Next time I am just adding some white paint to DaddyVan’s yummy wax and seeing how that works)  The missing hardware was tough to find. Only 2″ on center (meaning, the holes were 2″ apart) that is an older size and I was glad to find something neither too modern  nor too fancy at D. Lawless Hardware for a good price. I spray painted the hardware with a copper and a rust color in short bursts and then added some thinned out white paint glaze to make it feel patinated like the dresser. If some brass shows later, that is ok.

Above is another close up to try to show the texture that happened. Any greenish tint really isn’t there, but is the metallic gray coming through.

Even more fun was had in styling the dresser lots of different ways!  The heavy wax finish feels so buttery and yummy. The style two photos above is paired with an encaustic painting, which is a technique of applying paint mixed with wax on canvas or art board. I liked letting the purple color feel modern and artistic with the geometric shaped pieces.

I lined the drawers with a watercolor style paper. THAT was extra challenging with the curvy drawer front! Then I got to play with accessories that matched the colors inside! A bit of a Mid Century modern feel this time. The traditional 50’s dresser feels transformed! (There is even a leather top under there somewhere. No problem with adhesion, luckily)

How about a more trendy vignette? Recycled African glass beads have a similar variated feel. An airplant resting in a glazed bowl paired with a big Agave painting and a quartz slab feel natural and a little Bohemian. Still colorful, but not assertive.

Not sure WHAT to call this style! I collect hands and they often make their way into my displays. And the little painting I just got from Annotated Audrey Art. So of course, I had to play with the colors.

This Monet style painting feels almost made to go with the dresser. Soft and elegant. The airplant is now elevated on a brass pedestal and a matte glaze aqua pitcher adds a little bit of a hard edge.  I like that all of these looks are grown up even though the dresser is purple. All would work beautifully in many rooms in your home. And the color need not define the style into something cute. But it could certainly do cute too. Which one is your favorite? Can you picture  purple drawers in your house?