Painted furniture seems to be all the rave lately, right? Chalk paint, Milk paint, latex paint, so many different types of paint. How do you create that chippy barn paint look? What paint should you use? How do you apply it? I’m going to try to answer all these questions and show you how I painted my fireplace mantel with the easiest antique chippy paint technique I could find.
I’m going to be honest… researching antique painting techniques was a little overwhelming. There are so many different options. Where does one even start? I’ll share a few different options that I had been asked about in the past.
Table of Contents
How do you create chippy paint with vaseline?
You use vaseline to prevent the paint from bonding to certain areas. Wherever you apply the vaseline, the paint will not stick. You apply it with a chip brush or a rag and then paint the furniture piece as you normally would. Once the paint is dry you can use a rag or paper towel to wipe away the vaseline (and the paint that was on top of it). You can also use sand paper to achieve a more distressed look.
Even though I do love the distressed look that the vaseline technique provides, I wanted more of the chippy paint look.
To get the “chippy paint” look, the key is for the paint to barely bond to the surface and crackle as it dries.
The vaseline allowed the paint to barely bond, but it didn’t create that “crackle paint” look.
There are many ways to attain this. Some people use a crackle agent, but this requires painting a base coat, then painting with the crackle agent and then a top coat. If you’ve ever used a crackle agent, you know they can be tricky. My one and only failed attempt with a crackle agent was enough for me to look for other techniques.
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What is the easiest chippy paint technique?
If you follow me, you know I always search out the easiest method to create with. With that being said, all my research landed me on one common answer;
Using milk paint without the bonding agent.
Recently I created an antique faux fireplace mantel and I finished the mantel with a “white wash” finish, but I wasn’t completely happy with it. Hence my desire to refinish it with the Antique Chippy paint look.
I recently completed a few Milk painted furniture projects and I talked about the two types of milk paint; the premixed form and the powder form of milk paint.
General Finishes makes a great premixed Milk paint, but for this chippy paint technique I needed the powdered form of Milk paint. For this project I used a product called Old Barn Milk Paint. As of today, I can’t find this product anymore but here is a very similar milk paint powdered product from Amazon.
How does a powdered form of milk paint work to create a chippy paint effect?
With a powdered form of milk paint, you typically mix it with water and or a bonding agent to create the paint product. This allows you have more control over the thickness of the paint and how you want it to look as either a wash/stain, full cover coat, or for a chippy paint look.
If you are looking to create a nice chippy paint effect, make sure to purchase a milk paint product that separates the bonding agent out of the paint.
Below are some of my favorite and highly recommended milk paint products that come in the powdered form.
Powdered Milk Paint products
- Miss Mustard Seeds Milk paint– Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint is one of the leading products on the milk paint market because of its high quality materials and variety of products that go with it. She also has a wealth of knowledge on her website with tutorials on how to use the paint for a stunning finish (including a chippy paint finish).
- Old Barn Milk Paint– This was the original product I used for this post, although I can’t find this specific product anymore. They also have tons of beautiful stain products too.
- The Real Milk Paint Co. – This milk paint company has a wide variety of products and milk paint available in 56 different colors too. The colors can also be mixed to make custom colors.
- Old Fashioned Milk Paint – You can find this product from Amazon to Walmart and small shops in between. This product gets mostly good reviews on Amazon.
How I created antique chippy paint look with milk paint
- Apply a dark wood tint over the whitewashed fireplace. I wanted to darken the fireplace so when the white milk paint started to peel away it would look dark and old underneath. This step is optional. Milk paint will chip and look just fine without it.
- Apply two coats of milk paint without the bonding agent. The milk paint I used is called Old Barn Milk Paint. I love this paint because it’s an organic compound made from simple ingredients.
- Watch the paint chip away! I did distress slightly with a fine grit sandpaper.
Side note; Wood tint can be used to darken anything and unlike most stains, you can paint over it. I’ve shared all about wood tint (Dye) vs. wood stain in a post with a video.
A few final photos:
It really looks like old lead paint chipping away doesn’t it?
This is by far the best chippy paint method I could find. All I had to do was apply the paint and watch it chip away as it dried. It’s fascinating.
I love how the white chippy paint contrasts the faux birchwood fireplace insert.
I love all the detail and how the paint has chipped away on its own! No messy vaseline or crackle agent necessary!
My favorite part of this technique is that it really creates the chippy look of old lead paint without the health hazards.
Below are few pictures of my styled antique fireplace mantel. I went a little crazy with the lavender bundles, LOL.
What do you think? I was so pleased to find an easy, one step (really!) technique to create that chippy paint look.
Thanks for stopping by,
Lindsey**
Sources:
Semi Customizable Clock by Aimee Weaver Designs
Decorative Metal Watering Cans
Decorative Metal Vase