Crackled Chair – a Total Happy Accident!

Jennifer Allwood
by Jennifer Allwood
3 Materials
I recently had the honor of painting this chair WHITE for a women’s event at my church. Since I had done THIS PROJECT before basically “dying” the fabric, I thought I would try that technique first.
Below is what the chair looked like before...
In my full blog post you can see which paint color I used and what the mix was. Sadly, my old technique didn’t work. After 2 coats …. the chair was still doo-doo brown. I think because I was trying to go lighter vs. darker that the fabric just wouldn’t change color much.


So, I had to come up with another plan.
And that NEW MIX worked….. the painted fabric chair definitely went white, but it also cracked as it dried.


After the first coat, we let it dry and then sanded the whole thing with a little square medium-grit sanding block. The sanding makes the fabric soft again! But the cracks remained.


Then we did a 2nd coat of paint. And it cracked even more! We finished with a final sanding coat so it would not be hard and crunchy.
Just look at these amazing huge crackle patterns!!! It was such a happy accident!!!! It looks like a hundred-year-old fabric. You can see some astonishing before and afters in my full blog post
Suggested materials:
  • Paint
  • Sanding block
  • Paint brush
Jennifer Allwood
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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 2 comments
  • Cindy Jo Cindy Jo on Jan 11, 2017
    Very cool!! Nice job! It's good to know about sanding down the paint....my sister didn't do that and her chairs are hard and crunchy.
  • William William on Jan 12, 2017
    Looks great! Its one of a kind! Sanding down chalk paint softens it up. Looks like Ava approves and she is a pumpkin pie =:)
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