Old Word Parchment Faux Finish

The Old World Parchment Faux Finish is one of the most popular faux painting finishes. This finish is easy to do and has a wonderful old world look to it making it ideal for libraries, offices or anywhere you might want an aged look. The colors in this finish consist of creams, light browns and sunny golden colors for a very warm feel.
This finish requires a base coat and then different colored glaze on top that will be blended together slightly. You will need some latex satin white paint or eggshell and then you will also need two different tones of a creamy light brown, one a little darker than the other. You will also need untinted glaze to mix the creamy light brown with. To apply the finish you’re also going to need some tools such as, a couple of 2 inch nylon brushes, 3/8 inch nap roller sleeve in a 9 inch length, a cheesecloth, and 2 inch painters tape.

You will start by applying the white paint as a base coat after taping off all molding, trim, doors, windows and whatever needs to be taped off. Once the base coat has dried for 24 hours you may begin the glazing part of the finish.

You will need to mix your glaze by combining the two colors with the untinted glaze in two separate containers. The mixture should be one part glaze and one part paint for a nice workable colored glaze.

Now you can apply the glaze for the old world parchment faux finish by using the two brushes. You should work in one small area at a time about three foot by three foot. To apply the glaze you need to make two squiggly lines about six to eight inches apart of each color. You will then take the cheese cloth and pad it around in a somewhat rubbing motion that should vary in direction. If the cheese clothe becomes tacky just rinse it with some warm water and wring it out good. There should be a good variety of light and dark spots. Once you have completed a wall you should now remove the tape before the glaze completely dries then move on to the next wall. As you will see the old world parchment faux finish will take on an aged look and have a wonderful warm feeling to it. For another great aged finish you may want to look at the crackle finish technique.

Crackle Finish Technique

Faux Painted Crackle finishes are extremely versatile and can be used on furniture, moldings, doors, cabinets, picture frames and even walls. Crackle is a faux painting finish produced by using two varnishes having two different drying times which work against each other to produce a crazed, crackled, effect. The first coat of varnish is applied and left to dry then while the surface is still tacky, the second application of varnish is applied producing a crackle look when completely dry.

There are a variety of crackle looks with different color bases (the cracks) and different color top coats crackle (the flaking paint). In addition the width of the cracks can be varied as well as the size of the paint chips through a variety of application techniques.

The Base Coat

The first thing you must do is get a practice board and choose what colors you want to work with. Once the colors have been chosen you will need to purchase the base coat which will be the crack color. The base can be a flat paint, eggshell finish or semi gloss finish. Roll on the base coat and let dry for 4 hours.

Applying Crackle Material – Thin or Wide Cracks

Now you will need to apply the crackle material which can be any product you decides to use but most paint distributors have crackle products. Here is where you must decide which look you desire, a thin crack or wide crack. For thin cracks you will need to apply a thin coat of crackle with a roller and for larger cracks a thicker coat of crackle with a brush. Adding a mixture of both sized cracks can be very natural and have an appealing look. You may add a polyurethane clear protective cot once everything has completely dried for at least 24 hours. Faux painted crackle finishes are very beautiful.

For other types of finishes and techniques check out the following articles below:

Faux Painting Strie Finish Techniques
Faux Painting Popular Finishes
Faux Painting Frottage Techniques
Faux Painting Ragging Techniques
Faux Painting Sponging Techniques
Faux Painting Smooshing Techniques
Faux Painting Color Washing Techniques
Faux Painting Technique Tortoise Shell
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