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How To Apply Dark Wax Over Chalk Paint
Sam Lutz • Apr 07, 2015
Do you want to antique your own furniture? Do you like the “yellowed with age” look of professionally antiqued furniture pieces, and want to do that yourself at home? Then you’re going to need to stop in at Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture
for some necessary supplies–and read this blog post with tutorial about applying dark wax to chalk paint.
Why Should I Use Chalk Paint and Furniture Wax, anyway?
Chalk paint is one of the darlings of furniture refinishers because it adheres to everything, without fail and with very little surface preparation. In other words: no stripping, no priming. Once chalk paint has been painted onto the surface of a piece of furniture, the resulting coat of paint feels a lot like chalk. It’s matte and very porous. To protect this coat of paint, furniture refinishers apply soft, clear wax over the entire piece. To give the piece an antiqued look, a combination of dark wax and clear wax used. The difference between clear wax and dark wax is pretty striking.
Dark wax makes its appearance on shabby-chic furniture pieces across the country. Slipping into the cracks and crevices of any piece of furniture, dark wax highlights all the details and carvings, scratches and grooves. It also adds a light stain to the smoother surfaces of the piece. White becomes beige, gray becomes slightly brown, blue takes on a gray tint. In other words, dark wax adds depth and visual interest to a piece.
The process of applying dark wax to a furniture piece isn’t as straightforward as you might imagine, and there are some special materials to purchase before you can get started waxing at all. Below we’ve posted a tutorial for those of you who want to apply dark wax to your furniture at home but don’t know how to get started. The following how-to assumes you’ve already painted your furniture with chalk paint and you’re ready to start with the antiquing process.
Materials
- Pure-Bristle Wax Brush (you’ll need two; one for clear wax and one for dark wax)
- Clear Wax
- Dark Wax
- Old T-Shirt, cut into rags
Process
- Dip your wax brush into the clear wax so that the clear wax coats the bottom quarter or half inch of the brush.
- Use the wax brush to apply the clear wax to the piece of furniture. Rub it into the furniture with a circular motion. The coat you apply to the furniture should be thin, with no goops of wax on the furniture. Cover the entire piece of furniture with the clear wax.
- Use a clean t-shirt rag to remove any excess clear wax from the piece.
- Dip your other wax brush into the dark wax.
- Apply the dark wax to the surface of the piece of furniture, directly over the clear wax. Work in sections because the dark wax will dry before you can coat the entire piece.
- Dip a clean rag into the clear wax and then use the rag to remove the dark wax from the piece. The rag will spread the clear and dark wax around, wiping up the dark wax from the smooth flat sections of the piece, and leaving dark wax in the grooves and pits on the surface. Continue this process, working in small segments, until the entire piece of furniture has been covered in dark wax.
For more information about applying dark wax to your furniture, check out this online tutorial, or take a look at this helpful YouTube video:
Of course, residents of the Pittsburgh area can also stop in at Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture. We can walk you through the process and answer questions you may have. We look forward to seeing you!
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