MY take on paint

I get asked a LOT about what paint I use, what is my favorite, what to use on what and other questions. my answer is always it depends. I have played with most types of paints with my scrapbooking, in my house renos, furniture makeovers and just plain old curiosity. I can say with full honestly I really don't have a favorite. I use what I have or what I think will fit the project best

So lets start  

Latex paint

latex paint is found at any hardware store, comes in a million colors , is inexpensive , easy to use, easy to  clean up, require no sealing unless in very high traffic places and sticks to most surfaces. its gotten a bad rap in the furniture painting world and I don't really know why because I can do with latex paint what I can do with all the others.

So things I have found  a little more difficult is that if you don't want brush strokes with latex you need to be more careful and use better brushes than the other paints and it is a bit more difficult to distress .... not impossible but does require more elbow grease. Once it's dry if you made a mistake like drips it is really hard and almost impossible to fix without restarting your whole project ..... you do not really need to seal latex paint unless its a table top or another high traffic project.

I always buy the sample size so i don't have a  huge can to store and they are around 7$

Milk paint

I LOVE working with milk paint. This paint comes in a power form that needs to be mixed with water (yes that is annoying as hell), the finish is beautiful, it doesn't come in a lot of color but the colors they do have are fabulous, it does need to be sealed but even if you don't  seal it , it feels really nice to touch. Milk paint only had like 4 ingredients and is a old timey paint your great grandfather probably used. It is also very easy to distress. Milk paint sometimes needs a bonding agent to help it stick to certain surfaces

Disclaimer : If you are a perfectionist or like to have control don't even bother trying milk paint. Milk paint had a mind of it own and will do weird things. like flake off, crackle , change color and chip. I personally think that my favorite part but iIknow it freaks out some people.

A bag of milk paint is around 25$ and it seems to last a very long time

Chalk paint

I have a love /hate relationship with chalk paint. On one hand it saved my ass a few time. Chalk paint will STICK to anything seriously, it does not leave many paint brush strokes, comes in beautiful colors, distresses well and you can easily fix mistakes with chalk paint...

What I don't like about chalk paint is the work needed after painting to have a nice finish. Chalk paint is porous and well chalky once dry and if not sealed properly will stain easily, be hard to clean  and it feel rough to the touch. To have a nice finish with chalk paint you need to sand lightly and seal it properly with either wax, a polycrylic or a sealer made for chalk; paint. so chalk paint is less work to start but to finish the project is a bit more work. 

chalk paint is usually around 25 $ for a small can

Mineral paint

Mineral paint is a happy medium between chalk paint and latex paint I find. Its matte like a chalk paint and stick very well to almost any surface and you don't really need a sealant with it. To me it feel like a very high quality latex paint in eggshell except it distresses easier.  This is a new paint for me and I only have 2 colors but the more I use it the more I like it.

Its around 25$

Clay base paints

Clay paint is for when you want to get funky and artistic. This paint is fun to play with and comes in the most vibrant colors. Up until  you seal it you can always reactivate it with water and change it up making a perfect paint to blend and mix and match colors and do allfunky bohemian style things with it. you can do  artistic stuff with all the others paints too but with clay paint if you decide after its dry, you don't like something just spray it with water and fix it.

It is like chalk paint it is very porous and NEEDs to be sealed but its definitely a fun paint to play with. the price of clay paint varies a lot from brand to brand 16$-25$

 

And let not forget the old tried and true craft paint, it is cheap, there is a million of colors to choose from that you can do pretty much anything with

I like it best for little projects and touch ups but you can certainly paint bigger things with this and it does a good job too

I used all my paints on this chair just to see if one would stand out and honestly none of them did... so my verdict is use what you like and have fun painting  ...