I’m about to put a finish on my kitchen cabinetry.
It is a 150 years old house and I built pine reproduction cabinets. I intend to put milk paint on them but i’ve never used the stuff before. I’ve tried two different colors to figure out how to work with the milk paint. The first color(Fort York red, from Homestead) looks good and dries nice. But it never seems to cure. A wet rag will always strip it without any effort, even after several days of application. Using any kind of water based top coat will dissolve the paint that will crack and look awfull. The brush will even put some dissolved paint in the varnish container. Two coats of well cured tung oil won’t prevent the paint from massively adhering to a wet rag used to simulate a normal cleaning of the cabinet front. Wax did not seem to ad ANY degree of protection (the smallest drop of water will instantly discolor the piece) The only thing that seems effective is an oil based varnish.
I’ve read that milk paint is very durable, that you can put any finish on it as a top coat, that oil will make it age butifully, aquiring a unique patina, and so on. This does not seem to be true with the paint I use!
I just started some more test with my second color, and it seems to react differently. Have not tried it yet, bu I would guess it cures better. One thing: the red bag of paint has been open for some time (like several years). Can it be outdated in some way?
What is wrong with my paint (or me!)?
I guess my real question is: what would you top milk paint with for use on kitchen cabinets and get this aging antique patina while still having a moderate amount of protection?
Thank you.
Fred
Replies
Milk paint
There are folks here that know a lot more about finishing than I do but until they show up here is my take: The milk paint I have used in the past was as tough as nails. You couldn't hurt it with anything. Sometimes a wet glass left on a small milk painted table overnight would show a white ring that I was told was calcium leaching out of the paint. It would just wipe off with a wet rag. At some point I started wiping milkpaint with a light coat of linseed oil and it got richer and better. I have been told that milk paint is very hard to strip off it is that tough. In my shop I see on the paint shelf that I have sealed unused milk paint powder in mason jars in the orig pkg and from that I seem to remember that I was told to seal it in airtight containers. Perhaps the old opened paint you first used did go bad. Good luck.
I have never used milk paint but I have heard that it can be very touchy. I would strongly suggest you contact the tech folks at the manufacturer to see what they suggest.
I did!
In fact, my wife did. The answer she got did not help much, since it is what they suggested that actually didn't work. They have been very nice and gave her lots of informations. I'll call them back this week to find out some more, but the man from Homestead told her the paint has no expiration date. I seem to remember I've heard otherwise, but it is hard to argue with the maker of the product!
The manufacturer proposed slightly different things than the distributer (also very nice and apperently knowledgeble). One proposed hemp oil, while the other told us about tung. To me, it is not a matter of coating milk paint specifically.?.. I would think that the properties of given oils remain the same wether they are applied one bare wood or on paint? (BLO adds more depth but protects less than tung, etc...)
Fred
Milk paint does have have an expiration date once it is mixed with water and it is very short. Mix only what you are going to use at once. Use it only on bare wood or over itself as a second or third coat. FWW has done several articles on milk paint, take a quick search.
Please think hard about using milk paint. It is the most permanent paint you can use--you might as well use a Magic Marker, in case you EVER want to change the color of these cabinets. It is bulletproof. It is all but impossible to get out of wood that has been painted raw. Ask me how I know!! LOL
With regard to your question about shelf life. You may be thinking of it if you mix your own, using milk! I imagine the commercial ones are stabilized.
Have you tried it on a scrap? Real milk paint has a very rough finish--like light sand paper. That is also a magnet for dirt.
Top coating--you can put a varnish over it for some "gloss" or even matte/satin finish because the milk paint is VERY matte. I don't understand your desire to put an oil finish over this opaque paint. The BLO is not going to bring out any grain. Tung oil is not going to do anything either. You are going to want a finish that can be wiped off from time to time--I think.
I LOVE the colors of original milk paint, but they are VERY available now.
Putting an oil/varnish finish over milk paint works quite well. One of the defects of milk paint by itself is that it tends to develop water spots quite easily. But if you remove the surface roughness with a 3-m pad and follow up with the oil/varnish mix, the color darkens and becomes richer, and the tendancy to show water spots is reduced. But, it doesn't look like was painted with satin paint exactly. The surface roughness disappears.
Milk paint isn't going to look like a new painted cabinets.. But, in a really old house they can look like they have been there a really long time. If the cabinets are pine they will get dinged and show age much sooner than hard wood anyway.
I used "Barn Red" from the Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company on a couple of Shaker Peg Racks that I built. It was my first experience with Milk Paint. I called their Tech support and found them helpful.
After about 2 or 3 coats of the milk paint I brushed on around 2 coats of orange shellac. It slightly darkened the color and gave it a nice luster. Shellac may not be as durable as some finishes, but it looks good, and it 's repairable.
I can't comment on stripping but I would use milk paint again.
Jon
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled