I bought some unpainted birdhouses back in April and have sat and ummed and ahhed at them since then. It worked and I am now making them into Christmas decorations.
They have just had the paint wax treatment to make them look aged and are ready to be decorated. Photos to follow.
HOW TO AGE ITEMS USING PAINT & WAX TREATMENT:
I have used childrens paints in a bottle as the finished product will be an indoor feature with not much use. If you wish to do this on an item which has been sanded and cleaned such as furniture then ordinary emulsion paint is best.
Choose your underlay coat and paint the item in this colour.
Leave to thoroughly dry.
Take a white coloured candle and rub all over the item - it doesn't matter if you do not manage to get little crevices and difficult corners as this all adds to the finished look of your aged item.
Clean off any excess wax - a dry paint brush is good for this.
Paint your piece again but this time in white making sure you get a good covering. To completely cover it may take a few coats. Make sure each coat is allowed to dry thoroughly before apllying another.
When the last top coat has dried arm yourself with a few sheets of fine grade sand paper.
Gently rub all over your item and you will see the top coat start to lift and the colour of the undercoat appear.
Keep sanding till you get your desired effect - age usually starts to show worse on corners so pay particular attention to them.
When you have got the look you want it is fine to proceed with your decorating on small items. However, if it is furniture you will need to wax over the completed item to help prolong the effect. You can do this by using a pot of beeswax and a soft cloth to apply.
* Another way to get the distressed effect on small items is to apply the top coat very thinly, leave to dry for a few minutes (just enough time for the paint to settle but not dry completely) and then DRY brush the paint as far as it will go along the item.
Have fun...
