Trying a New Technique

This paint technique makes a chair or any peice of furniture look old and have a ton of character. Definetely a paint technique that I wanted to try!

I am trying to get my creative juices flowing so I decided to try a different painting technique. I saw this technique on a blog and it looked fun to try. She said you could use up to five colors although on her post she used only three. I decided to try a lot of colors. You have to use acrylic paint and not latex. It just works better. The first thing I did was find a chair with a good shape. Sanded it and then painted it a cream base color. Then comes the color.

I started with an aqua color. I wanted this color to show through. You paint it a color then you take wax from an candle and rub it where you want the next layer to be scraped off. Everywhere you put the wax, the paint won't stick. I've used this technique before to distress but haven't used it with so much color. Tip- rub the wax on in straight lines because if you do curly q's it will scrape off in this pattern. Hey, maybe that's something new to try...okay, maybe not.

Then because I love aqua, I did a different shade to see if it would add a lot of interest. When you scrape it off it will show these color, I thought it would be cool to have different shades of the color. It turned out that it didn't make that much of a difference. Oh well, this whole chair thing is to get the creative juice flowing!

Then, I added yellow. I only added it in places to put the wax over the top. In the end, you could't hardly see the yellow color. In other words, not worth the time to do this color. Next time, No yellow!

Then onto the pink! This color showed so well. Noted!! Fuscia Pink looks great!

I know, could there be any more colors...but, this is the final color. Green, not just any green but candy apple green! Then it was onto the paint scraper. Everywhere I had put the wax, the paint came right off. Tip-if you want a color to really show through well, make sure there is enough wax. Be generous!

I kept scraping until I was happy with the amount of color showing through. Tip- definetely use the paint scraper before you use the sander. Don't skip that step or it will gum up the sand paper.

Then I used Minwax gel stain over the top. The green on the top was REALLY bright. Candy Apple

Green bright. The lady recommented gel stain because the "gel" stain stays on top and can be used on everything. It doesn't have to soak into the wood or paint. The stain color turned out a little dark but still look great, just a little dark. I maybe should have used a slightly lighter stain.

 

I don't know if I love the stain color I chose but, this project was all about learning a new technique and being creative. So, I am glad that I tried something new...added to the repertoire. Hopefully it will serve me well in the future. I had fun doing it and I learned some new things along the way!