Some interesting facts about milk paint
From earliest colonial times, builders and architects have been using milk (especially soured milk) as a main component to give color to the walls and woodwork of homes in the New World. Anyone who has visited historical recreation museums, like some of the Colonial-era houses in Salem, Massachusetts, Boston, or even Philadelphia, chances are that you have seen examples of the milk paint that the restorers have been using to refresh and renew historical dwellings to their original historical condition.
Paints have been used by man since before recorded history, first as a decoration, and later on, as a protective coating. The oldest painted surfaces on earth were believed to be colored with a version of milk paint. Cave drawings and paintings made between 8,000 years and 20,000 years ago, were made with a simple mixture of milk, lime, and earthen pigments. King Tutankhamen's tomb, opened in the early 1920’s, held artifacts like models of boats, people, and furniture which had been painted with milk paint.
Since the original formula for milk paint was so simple to make and use, it was a major form of decoration for thousands of years throughout the ancient world. Over time, and in various places, artists developed different recipes, including milk protein (casein), lime, and pigments that produced varying durability results. A good number of these coatings also provided weatherproofing, while others just disintegrated, leaving only a permanent stain remaining on the painted surface.
The variations used in different paints included adding different substances like olive oil, linseed oil, eggs, animal glue, or waxes. Over the centuries, better recipes were found which produced a durable coating, which might last an indefinite period of time. The colors on the walls painted at Dendaras, although judged to be exposed to the open air for centuries, are as vivid today as they must have been some 2000 years ago.
In Colonial America, like in Europe earlier, itinerant painters crisscrossed the countryside, carrying pigments with them, which could be mixed with the milk and lime already in the household. Oftentimes, the painter would be a Ferrier or tinker, having some trade to offer in addition to his knowledge of paint. Nearly every homestead had their own cow or goat, and the community had its own lime pit. Even though there are many examples of early American furniture painted with some form of oil paint, the look associated most closely with the country homes and furniture of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries is that of the soft, rich colors of milk paint.
Now coming back into fashion due to its environmentally friendly composition, milk paint (also known as “casein” paint) is made from curdled milk, chalk, lime or borax, earth-based pigments (natural pigments include such things as clays, calcium carbonate, mica, silica and talc) and chalk. It comes out more like a thickened paste than a liquid like those paints we are used to using currently. Due to the borax or lime in the paint, it is long wearing and has antifungal properties which make it naturally resistant to mold. It also does not have the off-gassing problems that come with paints containing VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Casein paints may be used indoors or outside, on wood, stone, drywall, wallpaper, earthen plaster, masonry and will cover surfaces that are already painted.
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