Our friend Karen from Bay Avenue Antiques in Barnegat, NJ is back with another awesome guest post on the All Things New Again Blog. She shares a great tutorial on how to use American Paint Company glazes to create a stained look on wood. (If you missed her first article on how to get a beautiful watercolor look on furniture without an art degree, here’s a link.)
Thank you for sharing your wonderful tutorials with us, Karen!
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American Paint Company glazes can be used to create a beautiful aged look on painted furniture. Did you know the glazes may also be used to stain untreated wood? APC glaze is a great alternative to traditional wood stains—especially in the wintertime—because APC products are ZERO VOC. That means you can safely use the product indoors without worrying about stinky fumes or toxic chemicals.
I started with this plain untreated pine mantle.
Next, I mixed American Paint Company’s Brown Glaze with APC Top Coat in a 2:1 ratio. The mixture went a long way. I used approximately 1/2 cup of the mixture on this project and had plenty of both products leftover for my next project.
Coat the wood completely with the Glaze/Top Coat mixture.
You can go darker by applying a few coats of the mixture or by adding a touch of APC Black Glaze until you achieve your desired shade.
Experiment and test your formula until you are satisfied with the look. Be sure to take notes so you can mix more if needed.
Let the entire piece dry. Then apply a coat of APC Hard Coat for a nice sheen.
And there you are with a beautifully stained piece.
You can stop at this step and enjoy the look of a brand-new stained wood mantle. Or you can go a few steps further like I did to make the mantle look old and weathered.
I dry brushed several American Paint Company colors. I used Limoges, Lace Doily and a little Navajo White.
Then I wet distressed with a damp cloth to really add texture and age to this board! I distressed until the piece looked perfect to me. Then I applied APC Top Coat over everything to protect my finished work.
I repeated all of these steps on a couple of corbels, assembled the mantle and it was ready to hang.
Voila! A fireplace mantle that looks like it’s been there for ages.
If you are near Barnegat, New Jersey, please check out Bay Avenue Antiques, a multi-dealer antique shop loaded with awesome old stuff—and please be sure to like them on Facebook!
