Distressed White Paint That's Peeling

Crackle Glaze

• You don't have to wait for the paint to dry, age and crack. Do it yourself in an afternoon with a kit from the paint store. Crackle glaze is a simple way to age anything paintable. Just cover the surface with a darker paint than the white topcoat. Let it dry and then brush on a coat of crackleur. As the crackle glaze becomes tacky, paint the piece white. The glaze reacts to the fresh paint and shatters the finish into cracks. The result is a newly minted antique that looks like you found it in the attic.

Mismatched Mix-Up

• White paint transforms a disparate collection of hand-me-downs and curb finds into a one-of-a-kind dining set. Distress and paint a wood table and wood-framed chairs with white and crackle glaze -- if they are already distressed, celebrate your good fortune. Mix up different styles of chairs and take advantage of the white base color to use faded, mismatched vintage fabric to cover chair seats. Extend the look with lots more white on old sideboards, in a crockery and serving collection, and the candles in a cluster of random white and silver candlesticks.

Crumbling Walls

• The ultimate falling-down manor house has magnificently peeling walls, once white but now crazed and rough. An old -- very old -- house may come with antiqued walls in place. A less venerable home will need a little help. One way to get the look is to partly sand away decades of paint, leave the ragged, unfinished stucco exposed and lightly whitewash it to fade the colors and make them look dusty. Another approach, which will take some experimenting, is to use crackle glaze on the walls, over the entire wall or artfully patched-in here and there. Crackle glaze isn't expensive when used for smaller projects, but it could get pricey covering the walls of a large room. Focus instead on an area around a door frame or near the windows or in a corner of the ceiling and the wall. One peeling area hints at ancient leaks or windows left open in a storm in houses long abandoned -- very romantic and cheaper than wall-to-wall faux aging.

Woodwork White

• Whitewash the floors, walls and chair legs to bring light to a dark room, but age everything with faux paint and some rough treatment. A boring sunroom becomes a Victorian haunt with distressed white floors, cracked and peeling white French doors and sanded and banged-up white furniture. Wood is easily distressed with chains, hammers, screwdrivers, chisels and sandpaper. When the edges or the heavy traffic areas are worn away, the room looks naturally aged and lived-in. A mix of textures for upholstery, cushions, curtains and carpets provides interest. Keep everything worn and white for strictly curated monochromatic style.