Olde Century Colors Milk Paint Instructions

Recreating Historic Colors

• Olde Century Colors simulated milk paint attempts to recreate the historic colors of the 18th and 19th centuries. Paints of the era were a mixture of milk, lime and naturally occurring pigments. This produced a pallet of colors based on berries for brighter colors, clay for earth tones and lamp soot for black. For recreating furniture or architectural components from the 1700s or 1800s the paint can be applied at its standard, undiluted rate of 400 square feet per gallon.

Special Milk Paint Finishes

• If a more transparent finish that allows the wood grain to show through the paint can be diluted with water and applied as a stain. A clear varnish is suggested especially if the item will be handled a lot. For an antique look a crackle finish can be accomplished using the milk paint as both the first coat and as the top coat applied after the crackle medium.

Mixing Paint Cans

• Olde Century Colors are premixed at the factory in small batches. Because of the small batches the possibility of getting cans of paint from different batches exists. If painting a project requiring multiple cans of paint it is advisable to mix the paint from all cans together to get a uniform color.