The process: Milk garnered from local cows was mixed with slaked lime and natural pigments to create the original cream color used in the 1500s, and then hand-patted onto the walls. Peter's Square that houses treasured works of art. In fact, Vatican City used traditional milk-based paint to touch up the exterior walls of Belvedere Palace, a late 15th-century palazzo just north of St. While the majority of folks seem to use milk paint as a decorative finish for furniture, wood-working projects and walls, this versatile product also can be used on artwork - and even buildings, for that matter. Both paints can be distressed, glazed and waxed. Milk paint can naturally chip/flake off and crackle when painting over some existing finishes chalk-type paints don't do this and have to be distressed or forced to crackle. Chalk-type paints generally are thicker and are already mixed. You can use it thin for a stain, or thicker to create texture and age.

Because milk paint comes in a powder form (that you mix with water), it can be made as thick or as thin as you like.

Milk paint has a ton of character, even when it's not distressed.

Milk paint is known for its depth, dimension and somewhat 'mottled' appearance, unlike other paints that are flat and one-dimensional (such as chalk-type paints, latex, oil and lacquer).

Milk paint is made with all-natural ingredients consisting of limestone and casein, while most chalk-type paints are not all-natural.

Only true milk paint comes in a powder form (if it's premixed and says it's milk paint, it would be an acrylic-based paint).

Chalk-type paints are newer on the market and come pre-mixed.

Martha Stewart herself even has a recipe for making your own milk paint at home using lemon, 1 quart (.9 liter) of skim milk, a sieve, cheesecloth, and dry color pigment or artist's acrylic paint. It's commercially available from numerous well-known paint companies. 'It had to be made into a powder, so the customer can mix their own paint (just add water).' The reason for the powder form? 'Because the paint will begin to spoil once it's mixed with water,' says Khoundet, whose company is known for inventing the original powdered milk paint now on the market in the U.S. Today's version of milk paint has evolved into a powder form made from milk protein known as casein (which acts as a binder) lime (to make the paint hard and durable) and natural earth or mineral pigments (to give it color).

'The paint was used because it could be easily made from household ingredients that people already had on hand, and tinted with all natural earth pigments and natural substances that were readily available,' says Sausha Khoundet, owner and operator of Sweet Pickins Milk Paint & Old Fashioned Milk Paint. Milk paint has been used for thousands of years, having been discovered in cave drawings dating back as far as 6,000 years ago. However, the main reason why milk paint is better than other types of paints is that it is nontoxic and almost fume-free, and it's made of simple ingredients.'

'This makes the whole process a lot easier and saves you a ton of time. 'One of the best things about milk paint is the fact that it doesn't require priming or sanding before application,' says Bowker, a home-improvement coordinator for Fantastic Handyman Australia, in an email interview. The best part? Milk paint dries in less than 30 minutes, compared with the 24 hours needed for oil-based paints. That's when she came across milk paint, an eco-friendly powder that's made from 100 percent natural ingredients and then mixed with water to create liquid paint. Not sure if she would be able to finish redoing the cabinets on time, she went searching for a paint that would dry extremely fast. Sweet Pickins/Old Fashioned Milk PaintДЄ few years ago, Eva Bowker accepted a kitchen renovation project on short notice. If you're going for that distressed, worn look, milk paint is an easy, fun and inexpensive way to achieve it.