Paint can give new life to old furniture. But, before jumping into this project, make sure your piece of old furniture won't lose its value if you do go ahead and paint it. Some highly collectible pieces of antique furniture are more valuable if left in their original state.
Having determined that a little paint will do no harm, get on your paint clothes and go to town. There are two painting techniques you can use on old furniture to get that shabby chic look. Both are easy to learn even for the novice painter.
Crackling: This technique achieves that weather-worn, alligator finish of old furniture left out in the elements. Very popular in cottage style and shabby chic decorating, crackling is easy and very forgiving if you make a mistake.
Supplies: You will need a base coat and a top coat and may choose either latex flat or eggshell paint. In the end result, you will see the base coat peeking out through the crackles. The more contrast between the two colors, the more dramatic the results will be.
In addition to your paint, you'll need the crackling medium, polyurethane for the finish (or whatever is recommended by the crackling manufacturer), and some foam brushes of varying widths.
The steps:
1. After preparing your furniture surfaces for painting by cleaning and sanding, apply your base coat.
2. Allow this coat to dry at least two days.
3. Apply the crackle medium with a foam brush giving your furniture an even coat applied in one direction. Avoid overlapping brush strokes and work from top to bottom in the direction of the wood grain.
4. Apply the top coat painting in one direction. Again, avoid overlapping brush strokes.
5. When the paint had thoroughly dried, you can now apply the sealant, whichever kind is recommended.
Results of crackling are hard to predict, but that's part of the fun and also part of the forgiveness of this technique.
Distressing: Like crackling, the objective of this technique is to give furniture that aged patina. However, with distressing you won't get the crackling. Instead, you will gently but purposely sand certain areas of the furniture to reveal wood or earlier paint finishes giving your project that shabby chic and aged look.
Supplies: You'll need sandpapers of various grits from 60 to 400, tack cloth, latex gloves, a few 2-inch width foam brushes, a paint bucket or paint tray and liner, mixing containers, stir sticks, a 3-inch width chip brush, a spatter stick (optional), and paper towels. Latex flat or eggshell paint is used for the base coat. A second color of the same type of paint will be mixed with water for the top-coat glaze. Clear or amber 3-lb. weight shallac mixed 1:1 with denatured alcohol will be used as the sealant.
The steps:
1. Prepare furniture to accept paint by cleaning and lightly roughing up with sand paper.
2. Apply base coat and allow to thoroughly dry.
3. Sand project lightly with 220- or 180-grit sandpaper.
4. Mix glaze of water and paint in 1:1 ratio. Apply to project and allow to dry. If you are painting a piece of furniture which was first stripped, you can apply this coat in streaks and adjust according to your tastes. If painting over original paint, use your own judgment as to how much coverage you want to give it.
5. After the glaze coat has dried, lightly sand with 60-grit paper sanding more in areas which would get frequent use or wear such as corners, handles, edges, and legs. 5. Clean with tack cloth and apply shellac mixture sealant.
6. After the sealant has thoroughly dried, lightly sand with 220-grit paper to dull the sheen.
7. If you wish, you can add random spatter specks using a small chip brush and contrasting glaze. Just load the brush and flick specks onto your project by tapping the bristles with the handle of another paint brush towards your painted surface.
These techniques are easy and fun projects to do with your children as they don't require perfection. Still, the results can be very attractive and add renewed value to old furniture.