How to Antique Kitchen Cabinets
Refinish your kitchen cabinets to appear older than they are using a variety of faux finishing techniques. Begin with stained, painted or unfinished cabinets to create the antique look that best suits your kitchen. If the cabinets are already stained and the faux antique technique calls for paint, you can paint directly over the stain, after a light sanding. If the cabinets are painted and you prefer a stained antique look, you'll have to strip the paint completely away, down to the bare wood before staining the cabinets. Remove the doors, drawers and hardware on existing kitchen cabinets before applying any of the antique finishing techniques. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Primer
- Paint
- Paint roller
- Tinted glaze
- Glazing brush
- Stipple brush
- Toothed brush
- Crackling glaze
- Chain
- Hammers
- Stain
- Paint sponge
Instructions
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Strie
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1
Prime the kitchen cabinets, doors and drawer fronts. Let the primer dry according to the manufacturer's instructions. Paint the same areas in a basecoat color that suits your kitchen décor. Allow the paint to dry.
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2
Cover a section of a painted area, such as a door front, with a coat of glaze tinted to match the basecoat color. Use a glazing brush to apply the glaze. While the glaze is still wet, brush over the surface of the glazed area in an X pattern with the glazing brush. This technique will alter the straight lines created by applying the glaze.
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3
Tap a dry stipple brush into the wet glazed surface and then twist your elbow to create swirls in the finish. This motion helps blend the brush strokes created by the glazing brush. Stipple all of the glazed area.
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4
Drag a toothed brush from the top of the glazed surface to the bottom to make the strie lines. Follow the process to strie all of the doors, drawer fronts and cabinets.
Allow the glaze to dry.
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5
Highlight the recessed areas of panel doors and drawers as well as the outside rails and stiles of the kitchen cabinets with a second coat of tinted glaze. Drag a toothed brush over the wet glaze. Work in small sections at a time. Allow the glaze to dry.
Crackling
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6
Apply primer and a base coat to all areas of the kitchen cabinet that you wish to antique with a crackle finish. Let the base coat dry completely.
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7
Brush on crackling glaze in one direction only over the dry base coat. Apply a thick coat for heavy cracks in the finish and apply a thin coat for light cracks in the finish. Let the crackling medium dry completely according to the manufacturer's instructions.
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8
Cover the glazed surface with a flat top coat that matches the base coat of the kitchen cabinets. Brush the paint on perpendicular to the crackling medium. As the paint dries, cracks will form in the surface of the cabinets.
Distressed
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9
Strike stained or unfinished cabinets, doors and drawer fronts with various sizes of chain to create dents and marks in the wood.
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10
Strike the surfaces with one or more types of hammer to further distress the wood.
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11
Apply a coat of stain over the distressed surfaces. After the stain dries, apply a second coat. Let the second coat dry.
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