~ Black Glazed Finish for Painted Furniture & Cabinets

** SEE THE UPDATE TO THIS POST ON HOW TO DO A BLACK GLAZE HERE **

When thinking of writing this tutorial I was considering what the differences might be between doing this black glaze the antiqued white (mocha) glaze that I have written about previously.

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. Although this is simple, it can be 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 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 and the more detailed you want it, the smaller the brush to a certain degree. You will not be using any large brushes for this kind of detail glaze.

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.

~ See Y'All Soon ~