~ Black Glazed Finish for Painted Furniture & Cabinets

Getting ready to write about the black glaze on wood cabinets, I was thinking about how it was, or was not, like the white glaze techniques and it reminded me of the many projects over the years not only that I had done, but it made me think of my friend Rhoda's kitchen makeover. She did it way back when in her previous house. (We've known each other via the internet for a long time.) And when I checked her site, she was blogging about it! Rhoda's kitchen (And thanks for mentioning me, too.) She and her helper at the time, did an amazing job! It helps to have a really good carpenter when you are replacing a lot of things like the doors, but it was Rhoda's touches and hard work that made it so beautiful, too. So go on over and visit and see what a fabulous job she did with her makeover.

A lot of people like wood cabinets rather than white. I love both. Some days I love one, then the next day I love the other look. And it can switch at any time.
In addition to changing your white cabinets into a richer more finished look with glazing, you can also do this for wood cabinets. If you look at cabinet doors, etc. at the stores you will see that they often have a black or brown glaze on them, as do many good furniture pieces. This is pretty easy to do once you get used to it. Sometimes it seems frustrating at first, but once you get the feel for what the paint does, it is really easy.

1. Black Paint, one little bottle of craft paint will do most jobs.
2. Glaze, either the same used on walls, or use a bottle from the craft store found either in with the artists supplies or craft paints
   
3. Small art brushes
4. Rags, lots of them.
   
5. Latex gloves are quite handy to have, or you will have black hands most likely
   
6. Small container or bucket of water to dilute and clean up as you go.
   

Start with a small container and mix some glaze and a little water. Just enough water so that the paint is thin enough to run into the crevices.
(Although I have done this with just enough water to make it thin enough, water dries quicker than glaze. If you feel good with the technique you can do it with just water.)

Add black paint to the ratio of 1 part paint to 3 or 4 parts glaze & mix.
Add more glaze or water as needed to control the strength & thickness of the paint.

You will use a small artist brush to brush on like a pin stripe line beside the moldings or lines of the piece. As soon as you paint that area, take a damp rag on your index finger, angled away from the painted area and wipe it clean, leaving the glaze where you want it. (Sounds tough, but it gets easy!)

Carved areas or crevices: Brush on the glaze into all the deepest areas and along side any moldings. The black can stain a bit where ever it touches. So be sure to control it. Keep water and damp rags nearby to remove from any area as soon as you need to. (If it gets on the wood where you really don't want it, Comet will usually remove it right away.)

The smaller the line & the more detailed you want it, the smaller the brush to a certain degree. You will not be using any larger brushes for this one.

I like to splatter and speckle mine when I'm done. You do this by loading the brush with watered down paint, and tapping the brush on something hard over the area you want splattered, and it will splatter specks from the tips of the brush.
OR you can use an old toothbrush. Load it with watered down paint, and then use your thumb to splatter the paint by pulling the bristles back and letting them go. Some old paint brushes are short and stiff enough to it that way as well.

The glaze outlines the molding shapes and really adds a lot to ordinary cabinets. Lots of people have done this who had not painted much or at all before. Once they got the feel for it, they all did a fabulous job with it.

**EDIT:
Several people have asked if you could do the black glaze technique shown above on newer "finished" cabinets. Most likely yes! The pigment in black paint is so concentrated in most paints, that it will indeed stain the area you are wanting to highlight. You just have to be careful that you don't let it sit too long on an area where you do not want the black to be. Every so often the finish may be so "hard" that it won't take the paint. But that is not often.

For those not so pretty oak cabinets this will change them a lot. You can do the black glaze or the white. Either way, they will be greatly improved. I've had lots of people do this who had never done anything like it before, and every one of them did a fantastic job and loved it when they were done.

See ya' soon!