Easy DIY furniture paint crackle

We rescued these two old chairs from the curb a few months ago. I didn’t have a specific vision for them, but they were just too pretty to go to the dump. We recently decided they would be the prefect pieces to try out Cottage Paint’s Easy Crackle.

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The before

Here they are as we found them. The cane was damaged so we decided these chairs would make the perfect chair planters. 

The process

Since fall is upon us, we chose the autumnal color, Tamarind, from Cottage Paint for the main colour. It’s a rustic, burnt mustard yellow color. For the color underneath we chose a blend of greys we had lying around.

Here are the steps we followed to make these chairs crackle. 

Step 1 – clean & prep

We used a wire brush to get off the loose paint and cleaned the chairs with TSP. After rinsing off any TSP residue, we lightly sanded the chairs. Because we wanted these chairs to look rustic and weathered, we didn’t try and repair much and embraced all the bumps and scrapes.

Step 2 – apply base paint coat

We painted on our grey base with a brush. Usually we use a sprayer, like this, for chairs because it’s faster. Much faster (read about all the other details here). We waited several hours for the base coat to dry.

Step 3 – apply crackle

We applied Cottage Paint’s crackle medium with a brush. The crackle has a glue like consistency and is semi-opaque. When brushed on, it should have a milky appearance. We used about half the container to do both chairs.

Applying the crackle in long, linear strokes will give you long, linear crack lines. Applying the crackle in a hatch pattern will give you more random and pronounced cracks. We did a little of both since we were experimenting. 

We let the medium dry for a few hours.

Step 4 – apply top paint coat 

We used a brush to paint on our yellow clay chalk paint. When you apply the paint, you really can’t go back over the same area again because once it starts to dry, the top paint coat begins to react with the crackle medium. It’s really neat to see!

Step 5 – add protective coat

You will need to add a protective top coat to the clay chalk paint to keep your finish looking just the way it should. We used Cottage Paint’s flat acrylic varnish.

The after

The crackle is such a cool product! We loved the look of the cracked paint and it was super easy to use.

We did learn a few things in our experiment.

First, we should have chosen a base paint color with more contrast. The grey showing through the yellow was a little more subtle than we had anticipated. 

Second, I would use a little more of the crackle medium and in the hatch pattern to get a more dramatic effect.

What do you think of our DIY furniture paint crackle chair planters? Boy, that’s a mouthful! We think they are prefect for the season and the crackle adds so much charm to these aged beauties. As always, we;d love for you to leave us a comment below!