Painting Techniques for Antiques
Antique rocking chairs, hope chests and other types of antique furniture sometimes reveal more personality when they're painted. Innovations in painting and faux finishing techniques make antique painting a lot of fun.You may decide that painting an antique is preferable to stripping off the old varnish and staining.
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Gilding
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Try gilding, a process of applying thin layers of gold leaf to a surface. You can achieve this look with metallic paint. Gilding a whole piece of antique furniture would be too much of a good thing, but painting a picture frame with gold metallic paint would be suitable. Or consider painting a chair or a table a dark hunter green, or black. Dip an artist's paintbrush in gold or silver metallic paint, and apply thin lines along the edges of table. Or paint the tips of other prominent features, such as carvings.
Faux Patina
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Create the patina of aging copper with faux finishing techniques. Paint a tabletop black, and let it dry. Create a glaze mixture of 1 part muted turquoise paint and 4 parts clear glaze. Dab it onto the black tabletop with a sea sponge, in random patterns. Allow it to dry. With a clean sea sponge, apply gold metallic paint to the surface, also in random areas.
Crackling
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Use crackling medium, which gives your antique the look of painted furniture that's been left out in the elements for decades. Paint your furniture in the color of your choice, and let it dry. Paint on a coat of crackling medium and allow that to dry. Paint a top coat onto the crackling medium, which causes the top coat to crack and reveal the base coat color. Consider a brighter color base coat and a neutral off-white top coat. See Resources for more information.
Shabby Chic
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Give your antique the worn-in, comfortable look of shabby chic. This faux finishing style uses powdery pastels, or shades of white. Choose one of these colors and paint your piece, using two coats of paint. Consider one coat of white followed by another coat of pale yellow or rose. Allow the paint to dry between coats. Gently sand the areas that would be worn off through the years, such as the front of chair seats and chair rungs, edges of tables, and the like. Finish with a clear coat of semi-gloss polyurethane to protect the exposed wood caused by sanding.
Botanical Stencil
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For a quaint antique chair, paint it in a light or neutral color such as sand or cream. Buy a botanical stencil, such as a cabbage rose, iris, lilies or ivy. Apply a spray adhesive to the back of the stencil and apply it to the seat of the chair, or center it across the back. After the base coat has dried, apply the stencil and paint, using a round stenciling brush.
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