Among My Favorite Things: An Antiqued Antique

Antique door headboard.

To decorate in a rustic or cottage look, creating a cracked and aged look on furniture provides nice detail. A simple faux finish painting technique can produce such a look.  For the headboard of the bed in our guest bedroom, I chose an antique door that I found at the flea market.  I was particularly enamored with the key-hole on this door. The door was a faded, scruffy white and not suitable to use “as is” or “as was”, in this case.  So I chose to create an aged look on this already old door.  Dan says I’ve turned a true antique into a phony antique.  Okay, so be it.

Key-hole of antique door.

Using latex paint,  I painted the door a rich dark brown.  This is the color that shows through the cracks, but it is not the dominant color for the headboard.  After I allowed the paint to dry, I applied a thick layer of  Elmer’s glue using a paintbrush.

A close-up view of the finished faux crackled look.

When this was tacky, but not completely dry, I applied a coat of white latex paint.  As the glue and top layer of paint dried, they separated and cracked to reveal the brown underneath.  Finally, I sealed it with a clear commercial sealer. Voilà! An antiqued antique.
 

Dan bolted the door to the wall to serve as the headboard for our guest bedroom bed, and this is among my favorite things in the Marble Mountain house.