Old Canaan Building Materials

The interior walls of old New England houses were painted with milk paint. Not all of them, and not always, but often enough that milk paint is the correct reference point for anyone restoring or furnishing a traditional New England interior. It is a specific material with a specific appearance, and that appearance — flat, slightly chalky, with a depth of color that modern latex paint does not achieve — is the finish that makes an old room look like itself rather than like a renovation.

Milk paint has a flatness that is not the same as matte latex paint. It is chalky in the way that old plaster is chalky, absorbing light rather than reflecting it. Colors in milk paint have a particular quality — the blues are deeper and slightly greyer, the greens are more complex, the whites have a warmth that reads as age even when newly applied. On old pine, milk paint soaks into the open grain of the wood and becomes part of the surface rather than sitting on top of it.

Milk paint is made from casein — the protein in milk — combined with lime, pigment, and water. The casein acts as the binder, the lime as a preservative and hardener. Modern milk paint is available in powdered form from The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company and Real Milk Paint, mixed with water before application. The color palette of traditional milk paint is specific — mineral-based and earth-derived pigments producing the iron oxide reds, copper-based greens and blues, and warm off-whites of eighteenth and nineteenth century New England interiors.

Milk paint on raw wood is absorbed into the surface. Multiple coats build color without building film thickness. On previously painted surfaces, milk paint requires a bonding agent in the first coat or it will chip and flake as it dries. Unsealed milk paint has the most authentic appearance — maximum flatness, maximum depth of color. A coat of raw linseed oil applied after the paint has fully cured gives the surface a slight warmth and provides some protection without significantly changing the flat quality of the finish.

Source in powder form, mix with water, apply with natural bristle brush. Two to three coats on raw wood. On previously painted surfaces, use bonding agent in the first coat. Choose colors from period-appropriate palettes — deep barn reds, slate blues, sage greens, mustard yellows, and warm off-whites. These are the colors that look right in old rooms with wide pine floors and natural light from small-paned windows.