I finally looked up the original recipe for milk paint and found it's basically just milk, lime, and pigment.

I read a book on 18th century furniture and it said they made it fresh every few days because it would spoil, which makes me wonder if modern powdered versions are missing something or if they're just more convenient.

3 comments

3 Comments

piper_wells651mo ago

Wait, they had to make it fresh every few days? That's wild. I never thought about it going bad like that. The powder stuff has to be missing something, maybe the lime does more than we think. It makes you wonder if the old way had a different look that we just can't get now. Convenience wins again, I guess.

emerydixon1mo ago

My grandma used to make it fresh every Sunday, piper_wells65. You're right, that lime probably did something the powder just can't copy. The color was always so much deeper.

keithwalker11d ago

Actually, @piper_wells65, the lime was mostly for the color, not to keep it fresh.