Distress furniture using Milk Paint

For this project you will need:

Piece of Furniture you would like to Distress
Sandpaper- large and small grit (I used 80 & 200)
Damp cloth or Tack Cloth
1 Gallon Skim Milk
2 Cups Distilled White Vinegar
Cheesecloth or Strainer
2 Tablespoons Lime Juice
Acrylic Paint for color
Natural fiber paint brush
1 Small can Clear Furniture Finish (I used a water based polycrylic clear satin finish)

This is what started it all, my most recent project- a wooden end table for a sitting area in my office.  I wanted to get a nice white-washed/antique looking table and yes, I found many- for a price.  I was not about to pay $150+ for something I could make myself so I decided to do just that, make it myself.  I figured I would be able to get a decent table at a garage sale, after all I would be repainting it anyhow.  I decided to go to a nearby garage sale that I found listed on Craigslist last weekend to look for a table and I found one- a nice one actually.  I knew it had to be solid hardwood- no particle board since I would be sanding it.  The table I found was exactly what I was looking for and it was a great price, only $10!!  It was in such nice condition that I would have been able to put it in my house as is. 

I brought the table home and began to sand it down.  Luckily I have a palm sander which made the work much easier and quicker but you could do it by hand if need be.  I noticed after getting to the painting stage that leaving some areas sanded better than others actually works in adding to the character of the table.  The paint will adhere better to the well sanded areas and will crack more in areas that still have some varnish left on them.  If the piece of furniture you choose to use has imperfections that it great, don't forget we want the piece to look old.  I would use the rougher sandpaper to start (80 grit) and then move to the finer paper (150 or 200 grit) to finish it off.  Once sanded make sure you clean the dust off well, you could use a damp cloth or I used a tack cloth which I used and purchased at Home Depot. 

Now we get to the interesting part- making the Milk Paint.  This project was really born out of my curiosity of Milk Paint.  Before starting the project I had researched what product works best to paint distressed looking furniture and most of the information I found pointed to Milk Paint.  You can purchase milk paint on-line, I think it runs about $40/gal.  Of course the "frugal" side of me thought, I wonder if I can make Milk Paint.  Maybe it's just a watered down standard interior wall paint or maybe, just maybe it actually has milk in it- crazy right!  Well, I found out after researching that Milk Paint is just that- MILK.  Here is how you make it...

Supplies for making paint:
1 Gallon Skim Milk
2 Cups Distilled White Vinegar
Cheesecloth or Strainer
2 Tablespoons lime juice
Acrylic Paint for color

How to prepare:
Leave the milk out until it reaches room temperature.  Pour the milk into a container large enough to fit the milk, you could divide into two separate containers if you need to.  Pour the vinegar into the milk which starts the curdling process, remember to pour one cup in each container of milk if you needed to divide the milk between two containers.  Let the milk sit out overnight to allow it to curdle, stirring once or twice if possible.

The next day you'll be able to notice the milk solids separating from the liquid whey. Have everything ready prior to mixing since milk paint should be used when it's fresh.

Take the curdled milk and pour it through a cheese cloth or strainer to separate the curds from the whey (I used a strainer since I had one readily available).  Do this over a sink since you will end up discarding the whey and keeping the curds for your paint.  Take the curds that you have collected and rinse them with water through your strainer, you may have more curds than will fit in your strainer so just do this in portions- be sure to remove most of the water leaving the curds damp but not dripping. 

Take your curds in your container and add the lime juice which will help dissolve the curds and also add your acrylic paint for color (I wanted to keep it white so I just added about a teaspoon of white paint with a few drops of a cream colored paint to soften it a bit).  Mix everything well so that you are left with a pasty substance with no large curds left.  A helpful hint, if you want to speed this process along use a blender- it will also give your paint a better consistency.  The paint will cling to the sides of your blender so be sure to stop a few times and use a spatula to push the mix down.  Yes the paint does smell but the smell will be gone once the paint dries. 

Now you can begin painting your piece.  First be sure to place a drop cloth under your piece since the paint gets messy.  The paint will go on very clumpy and that is totally fine, imperfection is great when trying to make something look old.  With this being the first time I worked with milk paint, the first coat I put on I thought for sure it would flake right off once it dried.  I let the table dry for about an hour outside in the sun (you may want to allow for extra time if painting indoors) and to my surprise, it actually worked!  The paint dried just like I wanted it to and cracked up perfectly.

You can now lightly hand sand your piece to remove the flaked paint using the fine grit sandpaper.  Take a damp cloth or tack cloth to remove dust from sanding and then you will be ready to apply another coat, let dry and repeat sanding again. 

You are now ready to seal your piece.  I used a water based polycrylic clear satin finish.  I applied one coat, allowed to dry overnight and then applied another coat.  My table now looks great and I saved at least $100, I can not wait to find the perfect chair to put next to it.  Here is just one last pic of it in my house next to a chair I already have to show the feel I am going for.  I will post an updated picture of the entire set up once it's complete.

I will be replacing the rug, getting a new chair and possibly keeping the ottoman (reupholstered myself)