Painted and Crackle Kitchen Cabinet Design Instructions

Painted and Crackle Kitchen Cabinet Instructions - Crackle painting and Painted Crackle Kitchen Cabinet Design Instructions is the hottest color theory in Kitchen Design Ideas. Biggest bang for buck. This beautiful treatment usually goes well with the heavier styles of distressing and is on premium furniture pieces. This treatment also, allows you the opportunity to tie in a few colors in your Kitchen Color theme. You may use the crackle treatment all over the cabinet doors or only on special highlighted sections; such as the Kitchen Island, or edging of the doors. This is one of the most dramatic makeovers you can do with kitchen cabinet painting.

Products and Tools

4” Roller and foam roller cover

Slanted cut paint brush

Chip brushes, 2 inch and 3 inch

Rags, T-shirt type

Simple Green or TSP Cleaner

220 grit sandpaper for Prep

120 for Distressing

*Set Coat Paint – Color Chamois

2nd color desired for cracks – use either latex paint Or Set Coat Paint – Here Set Coat Basic Blue(It is like a Williamsburg French Blue)

Faux Cream Colorant - Earth Brown

Aqua Glaze

Aqua Crackle Size

Aqua Crackle Medium

Aqua Guard Flat Top Coat

Cheesecloth

Drop Cloths

Painters Tape

Color Palette

“HOW TO” STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS for PAINTED AND CRACKLE

Prep

After all Cabinet doors, bases and drawers have been sanded and cleaned according to your surface as noted in surface guide, begin painting.

MIX THE PAINT AND CRACKLE

Mix One quart Chamois Set Coat paint with 2oz Crackle Medium. Mix well with paint stick or use a hand mixer dedicated for this purpose. Set aside. Be sure to label this from the Chamois without the crackle medium added. Prepare surface as outlined in Surface Prep section. Prepare area to be painted by taping off walls and areas that you don’t want to get paint on. Use plastic and cloth drop cloths to protect floors, counter tops and appliances.

Apply

Pour some of this mixture into a small paint tray. When brushing, paint the recessed areas of the cabinet doors first with a cut/slanted paint brush painting in one direction. Then complete the process with the foam roller on the flat spaces. Be sure to saturate the roller, but offload excess paint on tray so you have no drips. Do the same process on the bases, flat spaces and drawers for your painted and crackle cabinet.

***Hint, it is not necessary to empty all the cabinets of their contents, just push items away from edge and tape the inner trim areas to paint neatly. It is also not necessary to paint inside the box areas of the cabinets. Let Dry Fours Hours or preferably overnight.

The next set of instructions for your custom kitchen cabinet design, is to apply an entire coat of the blue all over the cabinets. It does not have to be perfect as it will be underneath the next layer and will also be glazed. SO just slather it on and let it dry at least four hours.

Before applying the final coat, we will apply the crackle. Take the mixture of Chamois Set Coat Paint and Aqua Crackle and have it handy. We are now going to apply the Aqua Crackle Size in random places on the cabinets where you want it to be cracked with the blue peaking through.

When you apply the Size with a brush, you only apply where you want it to crack. So keep mental notes as you go around the cabinets applying the size. It goes on milky white and dries clear. It will become tacky in about 15 minutes. This is the precise time when you want to apply the Chamois Mixture. The tack should be about the feel of flypaper.

Apply the size in the natural areas where the cabinets would be worn or stressed. On the corners, edges and some random other places are good choices for cracked and distressed areas. **Hint, do not put on the size in different consistencies or it will affect the drying time. The more size you apply, the heavier the cracks. You may want to experiment on a test area before doing all of the cabinets. Brush on and leave alone as you should not re-work the size or it will not crack effectively. Don't miss this instruction, as you could affect the painted and crackle part.

Apply the Chamois WITH the Crackle mixture in an even rolled coat over all of the space, but not until the size is at the right tact. Do not rework the cracked areas.

This should dry overnight. You may see the cracks develop soon, but leave the cabinets alone and do not touch until the next day. This will allow the cracking process to complete.

Now you have completed the third step in the painted and crackle paint instructions. If you want also to have distressed areas follow the next step. If you want cracking but no distressing, skip this next step in your kitchen cabinet design.

Sand Edges and areas that would wear naturally – corners, edges, near handles. Be sure to sand in the direction of the natural grain. Do not sand in random areas that would not naturally wear. I am sure you have seen some furniture with poorly done distressing that looks like a factory random removal of paint. The idea here is to create a beautiful custom kitchen cabinet that looks like high end furniture. Your kitchen cabinet design will take on the extra wow factor! You may adjust the degree of distressing to these instructions by adding some knicks in the wood. This extra distressing is optional. I recommend a few nail holes, some depressions and a just a touch of extra distressing. Do not overdo this step. A classic look is the goal.

The next step in these instructions after the painted and crackle step is to glaze the pieces. Why add a glaze? If a cabinet or piece of furniture is aged enough to crackle or distress, it is probably aged in color as well over time. If the wood is distressed, the painted color would fade as well. SO you must add the vintage look by glazing the cabinet. It will be a soft elegant touch that sets apart a custom kitchen cabinet. This is an awesome finish for kitchen islands!

Mix 1 part of Dark Brown Colorant to 4 parts Aqua Glaze. Apply a thin coat of glaze with the 2” Chip brush going in the direction of the grain of the wood. Use the 4”chip brush in the larger areas like flat spaces at the cabinet ends or large pantry doors. Cover the entire door with glaze. While the glaze is wet, remove the desired amount (usually about 80 %) with a ball of cheese cloth or rag.

I like to use Cheesecloth for a first pass and then finish the details with a rag. This allows the glaze the gather in the recessed spaces. You may leave more or less on for a custom kitchen cabinet look. You will have glaze collecting in the recently sanded edges and will color these spaces slightly which is what you want. An aged edge would not be the stark wood color of recently sanded wood.

The cheesecloth allows some glaze to remain all over in a mottled look while the rag will remove most of the glaze for a more subtle look. When the desired look is achieved, let dry and repeat on each area.

You should have some areas where you see the blue cracks coming through and some where you just see distressing on sanded edges. This is a desired look and will look like a naturally aged piece.

Top Coat

This Painted and Crackle Kitchen Cabinet Design is one of the most popular high-end finishes you can add to your kitchen makeover.

Photograph

Check out these examples of Painted and Crackle Kitchen Cabinet Instructions techniques as shown in these professional kitchen islands.

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