Make Fresh Milk Paint

Make Fresh Milk Paint

You can easily make your own fresh milk paint using household materials, a little hydrated lime, and any color pigment you desire. The cost is about $6 per quart, and it takes about 10 minutes to prepare.

Woodworker Nick Kroll spent two years developing and testing his recipe for fresh milk paint, inspired by historical casein paints and incorporating modern innovations. This paint applies like an acrylic and dries quickly, allowing you to apply up to four coats in a single day without any issues. Once dry, the paint has a low luster and hardens into an incredibly durable finish. You can leave it as is or apply a topcoat of wax, oil, or any finish you prefer.

One of the best features of this paint is that you can mix it in any color you choose, using inexpensive powdered artist pigments. For example, you could use a deep red pigment sourced from the soil in Ercolano, Italy, near Pompeii, or a sage green from France. There are also various ochres available that beautify our world, along with synthetic pigments that enable you to create colors not found in nature. These pigments can be blended to produce any paint color.

In Nick's 100-page pocketbook, he provides step-by-step instructions for making the paint using common kitchen equipment, including a blender, a sauce pot, and a strainer. The paint is based on fresh quark, a protein-rich cheese available in many stores. If quark isn't readily available, you can easily make it at home using skim milk and vinegar. Just mix water, a bit of hydrated lime, the quark, and your chosen pigment, and you’ll have paint ready to use.

Since we began editing “Make Fresh Milk Paint,” we have created dozens of batches using Nick’s recipe and have been consistently amazed by the results. While we enjoy powdered commercial milk paint, this homemade version offers a truly different experience.

The book not only provides complete instructions for making the paint but also suggests some pigments to help you get started and offers plenty of encouragement and confidence to create your perfect paint at home.