A DIY Tutorial

As I have mentioned, we are undergoing some redecorating in my home. Our home is a war home built around 1950 and although there is a lot of charm in the home, not as much as I would like. For example all the doors are the ugly hollow core doors of that time. We searched everywhere for antique five panel doors but couldn't find any the correct size. So here is my solution...

BEFORE                                                                               AFTER

We began by removing the doors. Trim was added to create 2 panels on each door. We then stained the trim with a stain that matched as close as possible.

I painted the first coat of paint in a white. No I didn't sand or strip the doors first. This is what I love about Cottage Paint, these steps aren't necessary.

I then used the cottage paint crackle in small amounts here and there on the doors. I don't care to use a lot of crackle over the whole door. I feel it can look phoney that way.

After the crackle dried I painted a coat of cottage paint in country manor. I let that dry about an hour then painted another coat of cottage paint in driftwood this time.

So far they are looking good but still need more distressing. While the paint is still tacky I take masking tape and press it down in random areas. When you pull it up you get a great paint pealing look.

Then it was time for some elbow grease. Taking a wet rag I scrubbed areas of paint away. Some areas I scrubbed down to the original stain and other areas I let the different layers of colours show through.

This is another bonus of using cottage paint. To distress you don't have sand. With the wet rag you have a lot more control.

I was pretty pleased with how they were looking at this point. I still felt however there was something not quite authentic about them. If they were really old doors the paint wouldn't have been so clean, especially in the grooves were dirt would normally collect.

Taking some burnt umber oil paint and some varsal I applied this dark mixture with a rag over areas that would show dirt. It can seem scary because it goes on so dark. I take another rag with varsal and wipe away some of the burnt umber, leaving it in the crevices.

Now the look authentic. What do you think?