Texture and Layering | Painting Technique
I needed to make a new door, look old. Really old. The only dilemma was the underlying "new" door surface. I couldn't simply paint and distress. The look had to be achieved mostly with paint.
My steps to achieve this are as follows....
First, I stained the door. I didn't want bright new wood peeking through the paint I was about to put on.
The older the paint, the better the effect. (I mix a lot of it myself, and add in plaster of paris to give it some texture.
(This pic speaks for itself)
Thick, chalky paint.
Flexible scraper works great to spread it.
Clumps for texture. (It dries really hard.)
Layering. Lots of it. I chose to go with just two colors of paint, adding different amounts of POP. (Plaster of Paris)
And still more layers...
In random places, I scraped nearly dry paint with a cabinet scraper, and spread it right back on. This gave even more texture.
When I reached the point where I was satisfied with the amount of texture (or, age) build up, I spray painted some areas black and applied some Elmer's and dollar store white glue.
Painting over the glue before it was totally dry is key to this crackle science. (Thanks to different drying times of the glue, and paint.)
This is the "after" of the back side of the door. I will be posting about my distressing and glaze application soon.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 of 27 comments
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I love love love this door !!!!, you did a spectacular job.... thanks for sharing your process with us....!
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I've used Crackle on several projects but didn't know glue would work also. Thanks for the information. The door came out beautifully aged!
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This is terrific! Do you think I could do this on a wall?
Please what colors did you use? I really like this technique and I would like to use it, but I did not find any instructions in the Czech Republic. You will help me, thank you Alena
Please, what colors did you use for the cracked decor door? I really like this technique and I would like to use it, but I did not find any instructions in the Czech Republic. You will help me, thank you Alena