Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Antiqued Crackle Tutorial

 
A pair of red spray painted paper maché rocking horses caught my eye on one of my recent thrifting adventures. Immediately I had a vision of one of those gorgeous old antique wooden rocking horses with the lovely crackled paint.  It was then that I knew I had a couple of fun new canvases to work on!
 
 
The first step was to paint an “undercoat.”  I used a custom mix of 4 parts Pure White to 1 part French Linen.  Once that was completely dry, I grabbed my Artisan Enhancements Easy Crackle.
 
 
Easy Crackle creates a beautiful, natural looking aged crackle.  It has no VOC, which I love.  Brush it on for linear cracks or stipple it for a more irregular crackle.  I chose to brush it on in some places and stipple it on others for this project as I feel the variation creates the most organic overall crackle finish.
 
 
It is important to apply the Easy Crackle liberally, not so much that it’s dripping, but a thick enough layer to make it effective.
 
 
Once the Easy Crackle has completely dried, you are ready to apply your top coat of paint.  I chose to use Old White.  As you brush on this coat of paint, it is so important not to overwork the surface.  The cracks start to appear very quickly, and brushing back over them will ruin the effect.

 
You can see how the soft grey base coat shows through in the cracks.  Notice that I didn’t try to get full coverage with the Old White but left some of the crevices grey as well.  I think this really adds to the natural looking aged patina.
 
 
The next step was to antique and enhance the crackled finish with one more technique.  Scumble by Artisan Enhancements is a transparent, tintable medium that acts as a glaze over painted surfaces.  You might remember me using it in my Artful Storage post a few weeks ago.
 
 
I love the versatility of being able to create any color of glaze that I could possibly want just by mixing a little paint into the Scumble product.  In this case I used French Linen.  I started with about 1 part French Linen to 5 parts Scumble, brushed it onto an area of the horse and knew immediately that it was going to be too subtle for this finish, so I added a tiny bit more French Linen and tried again.


 This time it was perfect.  I used my paint brush to apply the Scumble mix, wiping off the excess and smoothing it out with a wet wipe immediately after.  I have also used a damp sea sponge for this step and even stippled off the Scumble in areas for a very different effect.  In this case the wet wipes were handy and helped me achieve the smooth, glazed finish I was after.  Scumble has an open time of approximately 15-20 minutes, which means there is sufficient time to play with the glaze and get your finish just right before it dries completely.  If the color or look isn’t working for you, you can wipe it off with a moistened rag and start over!


I was so happy with the effect of the French Linen tinted Scumble and how it brought out the features in the horse’s face as well as the beautiful cracks created with the Easy Crackle product.

 
After having painted the rocking stand in French Linen, it was time to seal the entire piece in order to protect its new finish.

 
Clear Topcoat Sealer by Artisan Enhancements is a no VOC, non yellowing sealer.  Very little product is needed to create a protective coat on your finished surface.  I used a Topcoat brush from Artisan Enhancements for the application and you can see what a small amount of product I actually loaded onto my brush each time I brushed it on.  If I were sealing a piece of furniture, I would wait 24 hours and apply a second coat.  For this decorative piece that I don’t expect to be handled much, I was comfortable applying just one coat of sealer.

 
Once the Clear Topcoat Sealer had dried, I added a glittered snowflake to the horse’s neck.  A little sparkle is always welcome, especially during this time of year!


 
This pretty rocking horse with it’s new antiqued, crackled and glazed finish went straight to Camas Antiques to be a part of my Christmas display.  The second one is in the garage awaiting it’s transformation and I plan to create this exact same finish on it…and then I just might hold onto it and enjoy it in my own home for a while.

 
Disclosure:  This is an Artisan Enhancements sponsored post, however the opinions and ideas expressed here are mine and I will only ever promote products that I enjoy using and feel may benefit my readers.

 
Thank you for your sweet visit!
 
Best Wishes and Blessings,
Amanda
 
 
 
 
 
Sharing With:
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch To Yours
 Friday's Unfolded at Nancherrow
 What's it Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants 
 

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Unique Secretary Desk to the Rescue!

 
With just a few days left to prepare for our Holiday Open House at Camas Antiques, I sold a large buffet out of my booth and was left with a big gaping hole!  Because I have limited furniture storage space, I rarely have pieces waiting in the wings for this kind of emergency!  Thankfully I remembered that a friend of mine had this unique secretary for sale!  She had offered it to me weeks ago when I wasn't really in the market for a piece of furniture to paint.  With my fingers crossed, I contacted her to see if it was still available!  It was!  My husband and I picked it up the next day and I went right to work painting it!
 
 
The fact that this piece already had unique details on it's own and didn't need any repairs or alterations really worked in my favor.  I had a limited time frame to get it ready for the Open House. 
 
 
Two coats of Old Ochre, some light distressing and Annie Sloan's Clear and Dark Waxes was all this piece needed to lighten up the darkness of the wood and give it an updated look.
 
 
I chose to just paint the two small drawers inside and leave the rest of the interior the original stained wood finish.  I really love the contrast of the dark wood next to the Old Ochre color.  Not having to paint and wax all of those little mail cubbies really saved me a lot of time as well! 
 
 
I lined the insides of the drawers with vintage book pages, a look I have always loved.
 

 This sweet rocking horse decoration was another paint project I recently completed for my booth at Camas Antiques!  Sometime in the next few days I plan to share a tutorial on how I created the finish on it!
 
 
I finally invested in some real German glass glitter and have been having a ball creating Christmas ornaments and gift bags with it!  I love how these sweet ballerina ornaments turned out.  I've always thought it would be fun to have a Nutcracker ballet themed Christmas display.  These ornaments are as far as I got with that theme this year, but maybe it's something I will further pursue in the future.
 
 
Here is my booth all decked out for Christmas!  There was so much more I had intended to do, but just couldn't quite get to it all!  We had a real blizzard this week with snow, wind, icy roads and everything!  I actually felt very fortunate to make it to the store to set up my display at all!
 
Thank you for your sweet visit!
 
Best Wishes and Blessings,
Amanda
 
 
 
Sharing With:
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch To Yours
 Friday's Unfolded at Nancherrow
 Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed
What's it Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants 
 

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Colonial Style Frenchified



 
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine asked if I would be interested in some furniture that she was just about to post for sale on Craigslist.  Lucky me!  Of course I jumped on the offer.  She and her husband even insisted on delivering the pieces to my home!  Well I think that was the easiest furniture purchase I have ever made!  Right away I knew that I wanted to put a French spin on this traditional Colonial style desk, mirror and chair!     
 
 
For this soft grey I mixed approximately 3 parts Pure White to 1 part French Linen.  Each piece received 2 coats of this custom mix.  Next, I accented details with Old White and Gold Gilder's Wax.  I really would have loved to trade out the hardware for some French Provincial pulls, but it just wasn't in the budget for this piece.
 
 
After some light distressing, I sealed the new finish with Annie Sloan's Clear and Dark waxes.
 
 
The desk and mirror had plenty of detail but the chair was lacking.  I paid a visit to my very dear friend Phyllis at The Purple Pear this week and picked up a few appliques including this lovely pair of flourishes.  Another friend had commented that the mirror that came with the desk and chair looked like it had wings!  I thought to myself, "how fun would it be to add a set of wings to the back of the chair?"
 
 
As you may have noticed, I trimmed up the appliques just a bit to make them more wing-like.  I am pretty much smitten with my Frenchy applique wings.  I will be on the lookout for more furniture to add wings to!
 
 
The desk top was almost pristine and a really nice, thick piece of mahogany...no veneer!  I just lightly sanded a few spots and gave it a good coat of wax. 
 
 
These pieces will be on their way to Camas Antiques next week for the big annual
 
 
I can't wait to give my booth a fresh and festive overhaul!
 
 
 Thank you for your sweet visit!
 
Best Wishes and Blessings,
Amanda




Sharing With:
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch To Yours
 Friday's Unfolded at Nancherrow
 Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed
What's it Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants