Woodworker's Journal 1993-17-5, страница 25

Faux Antique Crackled Finish

Giving a new piece of furniture an antique iook has often been considered as much art as craft. But, when broken down into the various individual steps, the process is considerably easier than you might think. It can also be a good deal of fun because there are no hard and fast rules that dictate what is right and w rong-—that means (here's lots of room for experimentation.

We w anted a finish that would make a piece of furniture look tike it had several coats of paint applied over the years, w ith the paint cracking and chipping from plenty of hard use. It can probably best be described as a faux antique crackled finish. A quick glance at any one of the many "country" magazines will show you that this l<x>k has become very popular of late. It was applied to a version of the Farm Table project on page 50.

Although we used red and yellow paint for our finish, feet free to choose other color combinations. As always when trying a new finishing technique, it's prudent to first apply the finish to scrap board. A test on a scrap board will give you a feel for the process and, at the same time, let you know exactly how the finish will look. The nice thing about this finish is that it's almost impossible to mess it up. If you don't like what's happening, just wipe it off before it dries. It's about as foolproof as you can get. Sepiember/Ocloher 1993

This finish will work well on just about any kind of wood. By the w ay, you won't need to sand beyond 80-grit when using this finish. The two layers of paint quickly smooth out any roughness.

Step-by-Step

1

Using a rag or a brush, apply one coat of Minwax Colonial Maple Wood Finish. Allow it to dry thoroughly (Photo 1).

2 Brush on one coat of a flat, latex, water-based red paint. We used a deep red, a color often called barn red (Photo 2).

3 In order to simulate years of wear, you'll need to remove some of the red paint. It's important to start this step before the red latex paint dries (usually within 12 hours of application). With a bucket of water and a clean rag close at hand, soak the rag. then use it to rub off the paint in areas that would have been exposed to a lot of wear (Photo 3). On our farm table, we removed paint on the upper and lower portions of each leg, the drawer knobs and also along the lower edges of the aprons. When satisfied w ith the look, allow the paint to dry completely.

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