If you missed our All Things Vintage Instagram Live session this past weekend, I am here to fill you in on the details.

Cindy from Reinvented Delaware and I had the great luck to chat with Chris from MMS Milk Paint.  Chris is the woman behind the company’s social media accounts.  That my friends, is a seriously challenging job.  I can barely keep up with my social media accounts.  (Some would argue that I probably don’t keep up with them very well – especially my Facebook page) However, she is the social media wiz behind MMS Milk Paint’s Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter accounts.  Oh and by the way she manages the “Moving Mountains with Milk Paint” Facebook group.

 

The video is posted above, however, if you don’t want to watch it, I am going to go through the highlights of our conversation below.

Finding Furniture

First, Chris was asked about where to find furniture.  A very valid question.  She recommended auctions, estate sales and facebook marketplace.  (Yep. I have used all of those venues to buy furniture). Chris recommended the website Estatesales.net for finding estate sales near you. She prefers auctions and estate sales because she can physically see the furniture and check out its condition.  When opening and closing drawers she looks for dove tail joinery.  She also says not to be discouraged by drawers that have a rough time opening and closing.  These issues can usually be fixed easily!

Different Milk Paint Colors

There is a whole array of milk paint colors.  The whites such as the colors ironstone and grain sack are very popular.  Chris also shared that their black paint, typewriter is a popular choice.  Of course, there are grays, blues, greens, red and orange as well. I have found that searching for milk paint colors on Pinterest yields some great images and inspiration.  Chris also mentioned that “green is the new greige”. The color boxwood is particularly popular right now and functions more like a neutral color.

Mixing Milk Paint

Another topic that came up was how to mix milk paint since it comes in a powdered form. This allows you to mix the paint to the consistency you desire for your piece of furniture.  It turns out that MMS Milk Paint has a video explaining how to do this.

 

Chris also talked about this during our IG Live session.  She even recommended using red solo cups, in addition to the glass jars shown above.  I always save any plastic container and reuse it for mixing milk paint.  Examples include yogurt containers, sour cream containers, even some small ice cream containers – with the screw on lids.  I keep the lids to these containers, clean them out and reuse them for mixing paint.  Keeping the lids allows me to put any remaining mixed paint in the refrigerator.

Another tip to impart, I always use very warm water when mixing the paint.  I find that the warm water breaks down the powder easier and creates a smoother texture.

Chris mentioned another important tip – shake your bag of powdered milk paint before mixing to ensure all the powdered color pigments are evenly distributed.

Top Coats

Chris also shared information about the different top coats to use on milk paint. The most common top coat is a furniture wax which can be either clear, white or dark for an antiqued look.  She demonstrated how a color can change with the application of the three types of waxes.  She also talked about using hemp oil as a top coat, particularly for the darker colors.  Hemp oil and typewriter work particularly well together.  Finally, she talked about using tough coat, which is great for any heavily used surface like a table where cups will be set down on it.

Her best tip was that you can buy an inexpensive chip brush and cut it down to use for applying wax.  Genius.  Cost effective and functional.

Color Trends

The last topic Chris covered, in our remaining 30 seconds, was popular color choices at this moment.  Greens are doing well on the MMS milk paint Pinterest board. Typewriter lightly distressed with the wood showing through is one of their most popular paint colors.  She also mentioned that the “chippy white” look is very popular. One of the benefits of using powdered milk paint is that it can give you a natural “chipping” effect that normally requires years of wear and tear to achieve.  Applying a white milk paint to old furniture can sometimes yield a natural looking chippy effect.  Visit Pinterest and enter “chippy white milk paint” into the search bar and all sorts of great images will pop up.

Thanks again to Chris for joining Cindy and I on our most recent addition of All Things Vintage.   We learned a lot about milk paint and can’t wait to use it on our next project.