MMS Milk Paint: Anticipation & The First Review

Today I want to share my recent experience with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint with you and begin to delve into some of the differences between milk and chalk paints. This will be a series as I learn more about different techniques and fun things to do with this paint.

As most of you know, Miss Mustard Seed announced a few months ago that she would begin distributing Milk Paint with her signature on it! Of course, if you're like me, you were super excited about it after you finally got up off of the floor! Tee,hee!

Well, I pre-ordered my paint back in August through Amy at  Maison Decor. As I anxiously awaited its arrival I could only dream of all the lovely pieces I would refinish. I watched blogs (including Marian's) as many stockists received their trial samples and tested them out on their own pieces of furniture. Oh, how I longed to to touch it, feel it, smell it...wait, wah? We are talking paint here, right? Snap out of it, Kennesha...okay, back on task.

Fast forwarding a couple of months, I received my precious box of paints and extras in the mail YESTERDAY! OMG! I was beyond elated and couldn't wait to slap some of that stuff on something. Anything! I grabbed this table. It's tiger oak, not a smooth wood but it would do for the first test.

My order included three colors, antiquing wax, bonding agent and the crackle medium. Of the three colors I ordered I settled on testing out the French Enamel first.

In the photo above you can see that the french enamel looks a little bright. I will have to post some more pics later but it's really more muted than it looks. 

I'll take you through my process. MMS offers a bonding agent to help the milk paint adhere to the surface you are painting. This product is particularly used for non-porous materials like glass and metal. Since this was a wood table, I chose to paint  without the bonder. 

Normally, my first step with any piece that I am refinishing whether with milk paint, latex or chalk paint, I use TSP (Trisodium Phosphate). You can find TSP at just about any hardware store. I purchase mine from Benjamin Moore and it is an alternative called "TSP Wash". It is less harmful and more safe than the concentrated version you buy at most stores. 

After cleaning the piece, unless you're using a latex based paint, it's pretty much ready to go. 

I followed MMS's directions and mixed the paint according to instructions on the package. Just to be sure I was doing things right, I watched the video tutorial. You can find it here. 

One thing I like about this milk paint is that you can pretty much make it the consistency that works best for you. For this table, I left it a bit thinner. Believe it or not, you're looking at one coat application.    A little goes a long way...

After applying the paint over the entire piece, I let it dry for an hour. The recommendation is about 30 minutes but I was chasing around my 9 month old, finishing dinner and checking my Instagram account...so, it was about an hour. I noticed that as it was drying, the paint began to crackle even without the crackle medium. I was happy about that as it added texture in unexpected places.

I followed with a bit of sanding using a putty knife and my handy dandy foam sanding sponge. I then used the MMS Antiquing Wax to give the piece a little more depth and of course, add age. 

So, what do I think of my first encounter with MMS Milk Paint in French Enamel? 

 What I LOVE about MMS Milk Paint:

• Environmently Friendly: MMS Milk Paint is environmentally and packs a punch to most specialty paints on the market with NO VOC's. 

• Application: This paint is easy to apply and a great paint for just about anyone from a pro painter to the novice.

• Price: Coming in at half of most decorative paints out there ($22.00/pk) it saves the wallet and can treat yourself AND a friend to coffee.  

• Drying time: The drying time for this paint is comparable to ASCP (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint) so you don't have to wait to long to complete your masterpiece.

• Sanding/Distressing: This paint loves to be distressed and for all of you out there who get a kick out of it, you'll enjoy doing it with this one. It chips easier than most paints and if you're going for that look, MMS Milk Paint delivers. You can also use a damp cloth to lightly distress if you want to cut down on sanding dust. 

• Color Selection: For now, there are 12 colors to choose from. Not a ton BUT you can customize colors by mixing (I am not bold enough to do that just yet) and you know MMS is already formulating more creative colors to send your way! 

• Availability: Like most specialty paints, you can't walk into your local Home Depot or Lowe's to purchase this paint but there are a ton of online stockists if you can't find a local shop near you. You can get more info about that here and here. 

Some things that would make MMS Milk Paint even better:

• Finishing/Sealing: The antiquing wax is not your typical wax. It is much lighter and less intense than ASCP dark or others on the market. I found that I had to apply a lot to get the results I was looking for. It also does not leave a hard coating like some other furniture waxes but does seal the surface well. 

So, there you have it...my first MMS Milk Paint review. I hope it was helpful to those of you who have  not tried it yet. Overall, it's really a great product and I am excited to learn and watch for more from this line. 

What I used for this project:

MMS Milk Paint in French Enamel (Maison Decor)

MMS Antiquing Wax (Maison Decor)

Purdy Paint Brush (Home Depot)

Putty Knife (Home Depot)

Sanding Sponge (Lowe's/Home Depot)

Staining Sponge for wax application (Lowe's)

p.s. Because I have had some technical difficulty with my camera and computer, consider this a sneek peek of this table. How many of you were waiting for a nice, pretty staged photo? Oops! More to come soon!