Faux Painting Techniques for Kitchen Cabinets

Crackling

• Some homeowners want their kitchen cabinets to look aged. Crackling is a faux painting technique that turns the surfaces of your kitchen cabinets into cabinets from the past. The cracking of the paint and the glimpse of the undercoat (of paint) makes crackled cabinets look like they have aged through the years. Crackling medium comprises the secret ingredient that causes holes to appear in paint. To create an antique look in the kitchen, look for paint that provides the right tone for the cabinets. Before painting, you might purchase an antique piece for the kitchen, such as a baker's rack or free-standing cupboard, and match your cabinets to the authentic finish of the antique piece.

Distressed Wood

• You can also achieve an aged wood look for kitchen cabinets. First, you will need two colors of paint. The undercoat should be a darker color that looks like a natural shade of wood. The topcoat color may be any color, such as a mint green. Use sandpaper to remove some of the topcoat paint. This leaves an aged look, as if the topcoat has worn away over time to reveal the wood underneath, but the wood is really your darker coat of paint underneath.

Double-Process Strie

• You can use two coats of paint to create a striped pattern on kitchen cabinets. The key is the direction of the brushwork and the simple tool, a strie paint brush. The first coat of paint goes on horizontally with a regular brush, followed immediately by the use of a strie brush in the same direction. Once the first coat dries, you apply the second color of paint using vertical strokes and then apply a strie brush in the same fashion as before. An over-glaze can create a glossy or matte look for the finish. This glaze might even be a different color than your original paint. Your resulting cabinets will have two or three tones, producing an antique look.