On HGTV Country Living, there was a man who made furniture out of recycled wood. Then he did a milk paint of sorts and put them in the yard for a while to age before selling. So maybe not outside unless you varnish.

WHAT IS MILK PAINT? Sounds interesting, have heard of it, but have no idea what it is.

Here's a good link. I ma curious to try it

Here is a link that might be useful: Milk Paint Company

I used it in my kitchen. I didn't like the colors of blue, so I mixed one of the blues with the white. I achieved "my" perfect color. Milk paint will spot if it gets wet, so it needs to be sealed. We used a poly-acrylic on ours. Again, this was inside. It's also very hard to mix. It comes in a paper bag of sorts, powder form and you mix with water. If I was to do it again, I'd get an attachment for the drill that would mix it up. Ours was very lumpy, I ended up straining it thru an old pair of pantyhose. If you did a whole fence with it, you'd have to use some sort of outdoor poly on it, otherwise, it would spot. I think I'd email them or call them (the customer service is excellent!) and ask them about using it outdoors.

Terry