How do you make paint do that?

Sunset, Jan, 1993 by Peter O. Whiteley

A Sunset book offers tricks with paint, and other ways to finish furniture

CRACKLING BRINGS the patina of age to painted furniture regardless of whether a piece is a week or a century old. This finishing technique creates a network of hairline cracks in the top coat of paint that let the color of the base coat show through.

The secret of the crackling finish is not in the paint but in an underlying layer of glue. You apply it over a dry bottom coat of paint, let it dry for an hour, then cover it with a second coat of paint in a contrasting color. The second layer of paint resoftens the glue, which stretches and causes the alligator-skin patterning.

You can purchase crackling glue at some art supply, craft, and paint stores. It costs about $6 for an 8-ounce bottle. Or you can use hot animal-hide glue or liquid hide glue (about $5 per 8-ounce bottle).

In our example, we used a flat latex enamel for the base coat and a semigloss of contrasting color for the top coat. Using a dark-over-light or light-over-dark paint combination produces the greatest contrast and most pronounced patterning, but you can try for more subtle effect with complementary colors of less contrast.

A warm workspace will speed drying and crackling, but humidity can cause problems. Use a foam or bristle brush to apply the glue (it can be washed out with water). A thick coat of glue yields the largest cracks, and a thin one gives more subtle patterning.

When the glue is dry to the touch (after about an hour), apply the top layer of paint. Although most instructions say you can brush on the top coat, there is the possibility that you could smear the softened glue coat. An alternative is to dab the paint on with a sponge, as we show in the right photo above.

After the paint has thoroughly dried, seal the surface with a clear varnish to protect against chipping. To mute and age the colors, some refinishers add a slight tint to the varnish.

IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES FOR FURNITURE FINISHING

Crackling is one of many decorative finishes--including sponging, ragging, spattering, stenciling, stippling, gilding, marbling, and graining--that can add pizzazz to humble pieces of furniture, like those you find at garage sales or unfinished-furniture stores.

To assist you with these techniques, as well as stripping, repairing, sanding, staining, and sealing, editors at Sunset and Southern Living have updated Furniture Finishing. This 96-page edition, with step-by-step photographs and drawings, is available from Sunset Publishing Corporation, 80 Willow Rd., Menlo Park, Calif. 94025. It costs $8.99, plus $2.50 shipping (California residents, please add sales tax).