How to Get the Chippy Paint Look

5 Materials
$20
1 Day
Easy

I just love wood decor that has chippy paint. I have plenty of pieces throughout my house that I bought or made myself. Today I'm going to show you my favorite way to get the chippy paint look.

Chippy Paint Supplies-Wood decor you want to look chippy (I used an old window) -Stain -Paint - Paintbrush-Wax or candle - Metal putty knife - Sandpaper (optional, if you want a smoother, more worn look) There are many ways to create the chippy paint look. In the past I've used various methods to get this look including Elmer's Glue, Vasoline, a blowdryer, and the list goes on. For this window I wanted to try something new to see if it turned out better and/or was easier. Honestly I prefer this method over any other I've tried!

To get started, I needed a dark base coat to make the chipped paint stand out. Since the wood was already stained I skipped this step.

After your stain is dry, gather your supplies for the next step: paint, paint brush and wax (I used an old candle).

After you've got your supplies take the candle (or wax) and rub it anywhere you don't want the paint to completely stick.

After the wax is distributed on the wood simply paint all over the wood. You don't have to make it perfect and you can leave bare spots with no paint as this will look more natural, like the paint was worn off over time.

Here's my window after painting. It looks streaky and I didn't cover the whole thing which will aid in the look of old, chippy paint I'm going for.

After the paint is dry use a metal putty knife and scrape the surface to pull the paint up from where wax was applied. When I was done, I felt like there was too much paint scraped off so I painted a little more in some spots and scraped again. I sanded just a tad and realized I liked how it looked without sanding so I left it alone. This process is very forgiving and you can play around with it until you get it exactly the way you want. You can also use multiple colors of paint to give your piece more character. I left mine with white only since that was the look I was going for.

Here's a pic of the whole finished window. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to, like the chippiness occurred naturally, over time

Here's a close up shot so you can see all the delightful chippiness. To see more close up shots and other pictures and details on how to get the chippy paint look check out my blog post: https://www.thriftyartsygirl.com/2020/08/how-to-get-chippy-paint-look.html

Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Thrifty Artsy Girl
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 8 comments
Next