Chocolate Milk Paint

WTF right? Chocolate milk paint? It sounds so strange that it just might be crazy enough to work. I saw a recipe for milk paint a long time ago and the thought of it always intrigued me. So here's my attempt at homemade paint that requires only four ingredients . . . and if you left one of them out you could probably eat it.

This is a shorter method for making milk paint that I found in a book that shows alternate uses for many common household products. I can't testify to the durability of this paint, this is more of a trial run and I'll add updates after a month or two of letting whatever I paint sit outside.

Other methods of making milk paint call for curdling milk, either naturally or by adding an acid. They also have a few more steps and additives like hydrated lime.

Keeping these things in mind, let's go.

Step 1 The Must Haves

Here are the things I needed.

* 1.5 cups Dry milk powder

* 1 tablespoon Borax (20 Mule Team of course . . . I'm sure they make other brands, but I've never seen them)

* Cocoa powder (for tinting, the amount varies based on your desired end color)

* 1/2 cup Water

* A food processor or blender

* A fine mesh strainer

* Something to paint

* And something to paint with, i.e., a paint brush

Comments

[Sunkicked]

Having known Mr. Dlewisa for many many moons (in fact you can see his garage in both my Cat Tree for Free and my Rain Barrel Instructables) I can say that this stuff will probably last for centuries and will mystify future archeologists as to how on earth we made this amazing paint from such primitive substances. The guy just doesn't fail when he makes stuff. This is why I'm friends with him (so he'll fix stuff for me), it's also why I hate him (he makes me feel inferior).

Congrats on FINALLY publishing something!

[mischka]

How do you make other colors than brown/white?

[dlewisa]

Tempera paint. Food coloring. Powdered minerals. I imagine you could crush charcoal into a powder and use that for black. Annatto would give a deep red color. I wonder if you could dry dandelion flowers and get a yellow color. Or perhaps that would just be a horrid mess.

[PS118]

This is cool, but how much milk/water do you add?
(At least please tell us what consistency it should have.)

I'm guessing it's more powder than the recipe calls for, but how much?

[dlewisa]

Good catch. I neglected to put in amounts! My name is Imma Moron.

[dlewisa]

Now updated with measurements. Duh.