Homemade Milk Paint: Tutorial

Many paints release high levels of volatile organic compounds that can contribute to a range of health problems. Jennifer Horton writes that typical household paint contains up to 10,000 chemicals, of which 300 are known toxins and 150 have been linked to cancer. Some of the most harmful chemicals found in paint are volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.

Paint-related products are one of the worst environmental offenders. They're the second largest source of VOC emissions into the atmosphere after automobiles, responsible for approximately11 billion pounds every year. Painters regularly exposed to paint vapors have an increased incidence of several types of cancers, impaired brain function, renal dysfunction and other health problems.

Equipped with this information, consumers have begun to seek safer alternatives. Enter low-VOC and no-VOC paints, which are now widely available and sold by most major paint manufacturers. Some have taken this one step further and made their own non-toxic paints from scratch.

Milk paint is an organic product that gives surfaces a distinctive color-washed finish. Milk is the principal ingredient, and acts as a binder for pigments. The fact that the material is no-VOC accounts for its continued appeal within today's green building community. Artists value its saturated colors and translucent finish, which can be used to give wooden furniture, terra-cotta pots, and other textured surfaces an antique look.

The following recipe will yield enough paint to cover about 20 square feet.

Milk Paint

Ingredients:

Juice of one lemon

1 quart skim milk

Acrylic paint

Directions:
1. Mix lemon juice with 1 skim milk in a large bowl. Leave the mixture overnight at room temperature to induce curdling.

2. On day 2, pour your mixture through a sieve lined with cheesecloth to separate the solid curds from the liquid whey. Dispose of the whey (or else your chickens will love it!)

3. Add acrylic paint to the curd one drop at a time, and stir constantly until you achieve the desired hue. An alternative is to use dry color pigment.

Milk paint will spoil quickly, so it should be applied within a few hours of mixing. The sour smell will dissipate as soon as the paint dries.