A Natural Alternative to Spray Paint for Outdoor DIY Projects

No more turquoise and hot pink grass in my yard!

I usually spray-paint my exterior furniture and decorations to freshen them up every spring. It’s easy and holds up pretty well, but I often forget to put down a drop cloth so I make a colorful mess of my lawn … and breathe all those icky aerosol fumes.

Not anymore!

Real Milk Paint Company—the eco-friendly line of milk paint we sell at our store All Things New Again in Leesburg, Virginia—has an all-natural alternative to spray paint for outdoor projects.

Outdoor Additive is a non-toxic powder you can add to any color of Real Milk Paint to protect against damaging ultraviolet light, mold and bacteria. Instead of peeling off after a few months outside like spray-paint does, the milk paint will gently wear away over time. (And then you will have an awesome vintage look!)

Outdoor Additive is an all-natural borate compound similar to borax laundry soap, but milled so finely it can dissolve into paint and keep a smooth finish. It works nicely on exterior porous surfaces like wood, concrete, brick and stucco, but should not be used over existing paint.

Lucky for me, these chairs I found at The Dump near my in-laws’ home last summer were already stripped to bare wood. (And they were FREE!)

You can read all about this Treasure Hunter’s Paradise here.

I mixed up a batch of Real Milk Paint’s bright happy color called Flag Red, added some Outdoor Additive and transformed the chairs into Outdoor Garden Planter Chairs.

We created a Pin-able Measuring Guide to help you remember the correct ratios of Real Milk Paint to Outdoor Additive for your next project.

I used 1 Cup of paint with 1 tablespoon of Outdoor Additive on the chairs.

The seats on my chairs were long gone, which made them perfect for planters. However, the holes in the seats were too large to hold a flower pot. Once the paint dried, I needed to build out the seats to make the planters. There are a few different ways you can do this.

I went the quick and easy route.

I bought a package of wooden stakes at the hardware store. They are basically 1×2 boards cut down.

They were still a bit long for the width of my chairs. I just cut off the pointy ends, flipped the chairs upside-down and screwed the 1×2’s across the top and bottom of the seats like this …

Now I had a perfect space for a flower pot. I just jammed the flower pot in there and the stakes I added hold it securely. We’ve had a few good rainstorms since I made the Planter Chairs and the flower pots didn’t budge.

Now all I have to do is remember to water them!

<3 Courtney

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All Things New Again is a family-owned furniture and paint boutique in Leesburg, Virginia–about an hour or so west of Washington, D.C. We offer an eclectic selection of handpainted furniture and several lines of paint for your next DIY project, including Real Milk Paint Company’s awesome and all-natural products. We also offer painting classes and workshops. Here’s the link with information about our Introduction to Real Milk Paint class.

And here is the latest project from Cathy and Dave. They used Real Milk Paint’s off-white color called Parchment on this hutch. They also added new hardware and replaced the backing with rustic boards for a Modern Farmhouse look.