Making Your Own Faux Crackle Paint and Saving Money!

by Jeremy Berger

Making your own faux crackle is very easy to do. Faux Crackle painted finishes are very trendy faux finishes that can be used to antique many items such as, picture frames, furniture, cabinets, moldings and even walls. You will see that rather than purchasing crackle products from a store you can mix your own faux crackle painted finishes from scratch with ease, since all that is needed is some paint water and glue. This mixture when applied will have all the beauty of any manufactured material and you will find that your final faux crackle painted finishes will even have more characteristics to them. There are many faux crackle finish techniques you can use to create different types of crackle finishes. This article will be focusing on making your own faux crackle paint.Crackle Ingredients

To start making your own crackle paint you will need to mix your water and glue formula in three different containers that will contain different mixture percentages. The reason for three different mixtures is that they will each produce a different crackle effect so that your final faux crackle painted finishes has some variety in the cracks leading to a more natural and realistic antiqued look. The first mixture contains 30 percent glue and 70 percent warm water, the second contains 50 percent glue and 50 percent warm water and the third 70 percent glue and 30 percent warm water.

Application Tools

You are going to need some nylon brushes, small buckets, blow dryer or heat gun, a table to work on, rags and a sponge sander.

Apply Base Coat

The base coat for your faux crackle painted finishes can be a stain or paint color of your choice. You will need to apply the stain or paint to the surface using a brush or roller, making sure to use the correct brush if you will be using oil based products. The base coat should dry for a complete 24 hours before applying the glue and water mixtures.

Applying the Glue and Water Mixtures

Apply the glue and water mixtures with a brush randomly throughout your project surface; this will create a variety of different cracks for a more natural look. By jabbing or twirling the brush this will also create an interesting variety of cracks in the final look of your faux painted crackle finishes. The top coat needs to be applied before the glue mixtures has completely dried on the surface, which can be anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes.

Applying the Top Coat

Mix any flat colored paint you want with 50 percent water so that it has the ability to break apart and form the cracks. Once you have the top coat mixture ready begin applying it to the surface using a roller or brush depending on what type of surface you are working with. Then once it has been applied hold the hair dryer or heat gun between 2 and 12 inches away and begin blowing the surface. By varying the distance this can add a variety of different cracks. You will soon see the cracks begin to appear. Once completed let the faux crackle painted finishes dry for 24 hours at which time you may apply a clear coat polyurethane finish for protection.

There are many more finishes at Faux Painting for Dummies where you can get more info on the crackle finish technique as well as many other different popular faux finishes. The faux crackle finish is in the Old World category of faux finishes and another easy finish to create is the old world parchment finish. There are numerous photos depicting many different faux finishes that can be very inspirational towards your next project. Hope you have fun making your own faux crackle paint!

 

Hope you enjoyed the article,

Nathan

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