Follow along and find out how to paint metal with Milk Paint. We often think that milk paint is perfect only on wood, but did you know it can also work on metal surfaces as well? We put our creative minds at work and came up with a nice project for today. Giving old metal lockers a new look with, the colour Poolside. 

These white lockers looked great in their original white finish, but we wanted to add a bit of colour.  These were new cabinets and had a polymer coating, so they did need a little prep to get them ready for Milk Paint by Fusion. 

Here’s what you’re going to need for this project:

• Poolside Milk Paint 
• Fusion Ultra Grip
• Staalmeester flat brush
• Odourless Solvent
• 80 Grit Sandpaper
• Plastic Milk Paint Mixing cups
• Tung Oil

How to Prep Metal for Milk Paint

To remove the coating we used 80 grit sandpaper.  If you have an old metal finish, you probably don’t need to do as much sanding, Just remove any flaking paint to ensure the surface you are painting is sound. If your metal surface is new, it may be best to clean it with an Odourless solvent. Metal can sometimes be coated with a factory oil-like finish. Using an Odourless solvent will remove this.

Mixing Milk Paint and Ultra Grip

We chose to use Milk Paint by Fusion in the colour Poolside.  It is a bold playful blue and will work well for this project. We mixed equal parts water and powder into our plastic cup and stirred, let it sit for a minute, and then added the Fusion Ultra Grip. This ensures the best adhesion. Ultra Grip is not needed for normal surfaces like raw wood or old painted surfaces.

How to paint metal with Milk Paint

We applied a total of two coats. Often with milk paint, your first coat will look really uneven and a little scary but don’t worry, a second coat will usually be enough for full coverage for most colours. Just trust the process and it will all work out great. Once the correct prep is done for a metal surface, painting metal with Milk Paint is the same as any other surface. A couple of thin coats is always better with good dry time between coats. On metal the water can only evaporate from one direction, so be sure your first coat is dry before applying another.

How to topcoat Milk Paint

Since we expect there to be lots of contact with water with this project, we decided to finish up using Tung Oil as it’s the most water-resistant top coat in our range. Tung Oil works great outdoors too and is a particularly great finish for Milk Paint. You can find out more about Tung Oil here 

What do you think? Isn’t it fun! 

Follow us over on Instagram to see more amazing makeovers and be sure to tag your projects @Fusionmilkpaint. We love featuring your work.