The Crackled Wood Effect Experiment

All you need for this project is a piece of old furniture, a sander, two colors of latex paint, lacquer, and Elmer's Glue. Because you will probably have to experiment a bit to get the technique down, I recommend going to Wal-Mart and purchasing mis-tints on the paint aisle. Wal-Mart is a great place for finding paint that was mis-tinted because most of the people who end up running the paint mixer at Wal-Mart haven't been trained. You will probably want to get a darker color for the undercoat and a lighter color for the top coat. The dark coat is what will show through when the paint crackles. I used some leftover paint from painting my entry area last summer and found an off white color mis-tint on the paint aisle.

 I followed this tutorial to get the crackle effect here.
Basically it is a 5 step process
1. Sand the furniture if needed. I had to strip off a sticky black veneer that would not come off with the sander.
2. Paint the first (darker color) coat and let dry completely
 3. Use a sponge brush to cover the piece in a coat of Elmer's glue. After all my experiments, a medium coat seemed to work best. Let the glue set up for a few minutes. This particular tutorial says until "tacky" but all the tutorials I looked at had a little bit different take on when the glue was ready to be painted over. You do not want to let the glue dry completely.
4. Apply the second coat of paint (lighter color) over the glue. This is the tricky part. Too early and it won't crackle right; too late, and it won't crackle right.
5. Cover with a protective coating of lacquer or other clear protectant

 I had to redo the table 5 or 6 times so I would definitely follow the tutorial's instructions about practicing on another surface to get the timing right for the second coat of latex before trying it out on an entire piece of furniture. Also, this table was especially challenging because it was a cheap press board affair and did not have a wood grain so I had to make sure to paint the glue and paint in the same direction in long swipes to create a wood grain effect. The tutorial also says to use a sponge brush. I concur. I tried a traditional paint brush on my first round. No bueno.

 Not a bad new look for a cheap table that was ugly, shiny black.

 I think it's going to fit right in.