Easy DIY Crackle Finish with School Glue
Easy DIY Crackle Finish with School Glue
Today I want to show you a fun and easy paint technique, a DIY Crackle finish.
It is super easy to do and only requires a couple paint colors, a bottle of school glue such as Elmer’s and the project you would like to have a crackle finish on. I’m using one of my old kitchen cabinet doors I rescued when we refaced our kitchen cabinets a few years ago.
Before you begin your crackle finish take off any hardware and fill any holes.
For filling holes, I like this Durham’s water putty, it comes in a dry powder, just add water and you only mix up as much as you are planning to use for each project.
Sand your project and you’re ready to begin.
Pick a base color, this is the color that will show thru all over on your crackle finish. This is Moss green chalk paint from Waverly.
Now pick a contrasting color. This color will just show thru in a few spots, just enough to give your project a multi layered paint look.
This is acrylic Neon Blue from Craft Smart.
Now for the magic crackle…Mix up the school glue about 2/3 glue to 1/3 water until you have a nice syrupy mixture.
Paint the glue onto your surface using nice long strokes in one direction. Don’t overwork the glue.
Allow the glue to become slightly tacky, about 5 minutes.
While the glue is still tacky, you’re going to apply your top coat. This is another small bottle of acrylic white paint.
Pour the white paint into a flat dish (or paper plate) and dip a block of wood into the paint. This block of wood is going to act as your paint brush.
Start on one side of your project and smear the block of wood across your piece in the same direction you painted your glue. Add more paint as needed but do not overwork the paint, you just want it to glide over the tacky glue.
Let the piece dry for several hours or overnight.
You should be noticing some great crackling going on.
For a little experiment, I wanted to see what the crackle finish would look like if I didn’t paint on the white with a block of wood.
For this crackle finish I used the same green, blue and glue but when I painted on the white I used a fine soft brush, once again all going in the same direction, with long strokes and only painting over the white once or twice.
I achieved a lot of very fine crackling but I think it’s a little too even to look like actual aged paint cracking.
Back to the original painting on the cabinet door with a block of wood.
Once the paint had a chance to dry I hit the edges with a sander. If the cabinet door suffered from all this crackly paint, surely some of the paint on the edges must have peeled off over the years.
I finished the cabinet door with a coat of clear wax, vintage wax in the corners and 2 handles to make it a tray. Just brush on the wax, and wipe off the excess.
That cabinet door definitely looks like it has been around a while.
All ready for breakfast in bed or tea on the patio. Or you can just apply this crackle paint finish to any of your future projects.
As always, stay inspired.
This was a super easy tray to create but you may also want to consider these past 2 projects using cabinet doors with genuine crackle and peeling paint finishes.
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This is such a great technique that you’ve shown and I’ve been trying to work up the courage to do this finish on a cabinet that has chicken wire at the top of the door (instead of glass) front. What’s stopping me is how much is enough and how much is too much! I tried a sample and it looked weird. So what it looks like you show is kind of “hit and miss” on the glue and do not paint the whole cabinet with glue? I’m excited to do this and have chosen a medium dark tan base and barn red top coat. Do you have any more tips on placement of glue areas for something like a cabinet? Or is there an opportunity to upload a photo to have you look at? Thanks and keep up the good work!