How to Distress Furniture with Glaze
Sam Lutz • December 5, 2017
Properly applied, tinted glaze can give your furniture a distinctive aged appearance. Many people assume this distressed look can only be achieved by professional furniture refinishers, but in reality, glaze is easy to tint at home and application can be performed by a capable DIYer. In this tutorial, we’ll talk about how to tint glaze with paint you may already have at your house and how to distress furniture once glaze is prepared.
How To Tint Your Own Glaze
Glaze is a medium that makes paint transparent. Glaze also extends the paint drying time, so people who work with glaze have time they need to get exactly the right look for their furniture. To tint glaze, combine four parts glaze to one part paint, then mix the glaze and paint together in a cup. Note: if the manufacturer provides different instructions or a different ratio, follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.
You can tint your own water-based glaze with any water-based paints that you have on hand. Typically, furniture distressers will tint glaze from black or brown paint, or a combination thereof. The color you choose should relate directly to the furniture color itself. Warm browns look best over warm paint colors like red, orange and yellow. Cool black or cool browns look best over cool paint colors like blue, purple and green.
Until it is dry, you can wipe glaze off of furniture finishes as necessary. Feel free to mix a little glaze.try it on your furniture and make new glaze if you don’t like the results.
How to Distress Furniture with Glaze
Glaze distressing begins by painting the furniture in whatever color is desired. After the glaze is applied, it is strategically wiped off to leave the furniture looking tinted and aged. Glaze makes the paint underneath look darker and richer, so feel free to choose a brighter than desired paint. The best paint to glaze is low-luster or semi-gloss. Once the paint has been applied and has dried, you’re ready to start glazing. Follow these steps.
- Use a paint brush or sponge to apply glaze to a small section of the painted furniture. Glaze takes between 10 and 20 minutes to dry, so working in small sections can help you stay ahead of the curve.
- Wipe off glaze from the furniture with a clean rag, leaving it in the cracks and angles of the piece.
- Move to another section when you’re satisfied with the first section.
- Repeat steps 1 through 3 until the furniture has been completely covered. When you’re finished, touch up glaze as needed to get a smoother, more even application.
- Leave the glaze to dry fully. Glaze is dry when it is no longer tacky.
This process is just one of many things that you can do to distress your furniture. In addition to glazing, you can also distress furniture by applying two coats of paint and sanding the first coat to reveal the second coat.
Stop In At Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture
At Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture, we help homeowners complete their craft and DIY projects. We sell everything
you need to get your painting projects off the ground. To get started, stop in at one of our convenient locations. We sell paints, glaze, tarps, paint brushes and other helpful tools.
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