…miss mustard seed’s milk paint – the paint

I watched MMS’s Tutorials here. Don’t you just love how calm and articulate she is? Makes me feel like a three-ring circus with all the craziness of my kids, cats, 100lb dog. In one of her series of videos she uses a plastic cup cup and a stir stick. This way feels less intimidating. Using measuring cups and rulers and tape measures is just not my forte. Just ask DH. I was never meant to be an architect no matter how much I appreciate design. If you are the same way then just trust her when she says nothing has to be exact. 

Here’s how to start:

1. Select a color from her rainbow of paints.

2. Open the bag and use a scoop to put the powdered paint into your cup/jar/Tupperware (Yes, I grabbed one of these too). Start with one part powder and one part water.

3. Add your one part water to you one part powder in the vessel you are using.

4. Stir. She uses a stir stick. I grabbed a plastic spoon out of haste. Yes, my cup is embarrassingly messy.

5. Keep stirring. She says a few clumps are okay. I had probably too many. Have I mentioned that patience is not my forte? This is what it looks like on her site, which is much prettier than what mine looked like. She does say “Be at peace with the lumps.”

Note the plastic fork.

6. Apply one coat and let dry. Go back for a second/third/etc if you want more coverage. MMS recommends two coats. FYI – I did not use her bonding agent because I wanted as many flakes as possible. If you do not want this variable then you will want to mix her bonding agent into your vessel.

Here is my first coat. You will see that it is very thin and I got a ton of drip marks because my consistency was too watery. And too lumpy, frankly. I ended up lightly sanding these parts to eliminate any drip marks. It became less streaky once I went over it with my second coat.

7. Paint on your second coat. Once the paint has dried you will want to try to peel the flaking paint. MMS recommends using a small putty knife like this one.

My second coat made it a bit thicker. You can see that I have a ton of lumps here. I kept them because I was excited to see what was going to happen when I was ready to flake off the paint. Again, I was going for chippy.

This is exactly what happened and I was trilled. I chipped of the lumpy areas with my putty knife and then took some light sand paper to the rest of the piece. I literally sanded off all those little bumps all over the piece and I was left with a really cottage-y, rustic look.

Here is where I have it in my home at the moment.

I will talk about her finishing wax that I used and also the differences between milk paint and Chalk Paint tomorrow.

Got questions about Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint? Email me or post and she is going to answer for us!

Oh! And remember my chicken cabinet? I ended up repainting it with MMS. To be revealed.