Painting Old Pine While Keeping the 'Old' Patina!

Tutorial Tuesday

Today I am going to share a trick I learned by accident.  I have painted many an antique item, for all kinds of reasons. If you know me well you know I often paint to unite a couple of pieces in marriage, for though their lines may match making them suitable to be together forever, their finishes rare do.

This old pine nail box was never painted, but I love its dings and imperfections.  One might hesitate to paint old wood for fear of getting a new look, however ...

I have learned that old, unpainted pine is very dry, so that if you use spray paint it will absorb a LOT of the paint.  Look at the ends of the wood to the right.  The ends are the worst at sucking up paint.  You would not believe how much spray paint that bit of wood sucked in.

But look at the dinged, scratched appearance of the wood after painting it with three and four coats.  I usually just keep spraying until it has the amount of paint I want.

In the picture about you can compare my 'new' paint to some old white paint that has aged forever on the small chest made from old fruit boxes below it.  Note that the ends of the wood here have virtually no paint either.

Now for the reason I wanted the white paint.  I wanted to add a cool vintage graphic that I grabbed off of Graphics Fairy.  I thought the bee in the wreath was perfect for a box to be used as either a garden caddy or a planter filled with clay pots.

 I have had several requests to show you my reverse Modpodge method, with all its imperfections.  Here you see the closely trimmed graphics painted on the face with Modpodge. Painting it on a plate allows you to paint off the edges getting complete coverage.

Next they are turned over onto the surface and pressed firmly in place.  I allow mine  to dry for one to three hours, though other have told me they don't allow much if any drying time.

Next I moisten my finger and start to rub away the paper.  As I have said before its an imperfect process, and if you look at the finished product and compare it to the closely trimmed graphic above, you will see how much I lost.  I sometimes, if I loose too much, will reapply just a portion of the graphic to fill in.

And here it is.  Doesn't it look like its been painted and has had this graphic on it for a few million years?  I love the aged chippiness.  Its sort of funny because it actually is an old box, now it looks like a sweet and charming old heirloom.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  Here it is showing off its stuff on my front porch! I can imagine that it would be even more charming with four potted plants in it for display.  It is just one more item that I have prepared for my flea.o.logy sale May 5th. Come if you can!