How to Create a Color Blending Finish with Paint

How to Create a Color Blending Finish with Paint

Blending and layering paint on furniture provides a unique design aesthetic to any room. Somehow rustic yet fresh and modern, blending and layering can be done by just about anyone with a little bit of patience and direction.

The best part about blending and layering is that it can give new life to even the most outdated-feeling piece. Those faded, scratched antique pieces can be given new life with this painting technique. So, next time you take on a household project, make it this type.

Your Base Color

The first step is to apply the base color to the surface area and allow it to dry completely before moving on to the glazing process. It is important that you allow time for drying so as to not get a blotchy, uneven finish that doesn’t look right.

After that, you have to prepare your topcoat glaze color. Make sure that when you pour them into a bucket, you mix them thoroughly to ensure that the color is even and there are no bubbles in the paint. If you are looking for a more transparent look, you can add extra faux glaze into the mix.

Adding Your Secondary Color

When your color is properly mixed and ready to go, use a 2” wide polyester/nylon brush and transfer that color glaze mixture onto a damp sponge; make certain to not over-saturate the sponge. Lightly apply that colored glaze over a small section of the surface and do so in a random pattern.

With the glaze still wet, follow the sponge treatment with a pad applicator. The key here is to use a wave or random circular motion to blend and soften the sponge marks together over the entirety of the surface.

A good tip here is to wipe that pad applicator off every once in a while. Try using a paper towel or a clean rag to do so. As this tool wears down, have a replacement applicator on standby when the applicator begins to leave lint in its wake.

Take a step back every once in a while to survey the scene and see how the piece is looking. This is the best way to spot uneven areas or areas that you may have missed entirely. The last thing that you want to do is put all this time and effort in only to realize that it doesn’t look as you’d hoped.

Continue alternating between the sponge and the applicator, blending as you go, until you begin to see the kind of look that you were hoping to achieve. This takes patience to blend all of those areas to look seamless, but in the end you will have the look that you worked so hard to achieve.

Breathe new life into your antique furniture with blending and layering. It doesn’t take much in the way of cost or time; all it takes is a little creativity and ambition to transform that piece into something new.

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