Paint Effects

I’ve been pondering paint effects lately. I’m planning to paint a bookcase that is currently baby pink. It does not go with my decor.  I’ve bought plain white paint, but then I started thinking about paint effects.

I’ve played with several in the past and I did enjoy it. In my old house the hallway really needed to have all the plaster stripped and redone, but while I was waiting for the builder to renovate the whole house, I painted it, using  first a white sealer, then I sponged on a darkish green. I loved the effect. That’s part of the wall behind the boxes when I was in the process of moving.

I liked the effect so much I painted my old filing cabinet (which was a dreary grey) in the same way, using metal paint, sponged on, I didn’t use a sponge, by the way, just scrunched up Chux Superwipes, which are popular cleaning cloths here with an open-weave design design that mops up spills and rinses easily. They worked a treat.

I was having such fun experimenting with various paint effects that I moved on to an old dresser I’d bought when I moved into my first house. I’d originally painted it cream, all over, but decided to play with a finish called “crackle glaze.” I painted the crackle glaze over the cream, and when it dried, I painted a soft green color over it.

And that’s it below. The way the green paint slips and crackles reminds me of some old Chinese landscape paintings (see bottom image).The green paint slipped and slid down on the cupboard doors, but on the drawers, which I’d taken out and were standing up with the exterior horizontal, did not have such a dramatic effect. Nice crackling, but not like an old Chinese landscape. I’ve had that dresser for more than 25 years and the paint effect still pleases me. 

The handles started out being a lovely gold color but over time they’ve darkened to brown, and every now and then I think I should repaint them, but procrastination sets in and I don’t.

I have plenty of storage space in the new house, but I keep special things in the dresser — the cup, saucer and plate sets that were my mum’s and used to afternoon tea with visitors. Some of my grandmother’s ones are there too. And special bowls and things: mum’s best dinner set is in one of the cupboards and a full Chinese dinner set that we bought in Penang many years ago. And other bits and pieces.

I clearly have a fondness for green, don’t I? And I don’t see that changing very soon.
So now I’m pondering whether to try a paint effect on the bookcase or not. After I paint it white, that is.

I won’t be doing it for a while yet — I have A Certain Book to finish before that happens — but in the meantime, pondering possibilities is fun.

Have you ever experimented with paint effects? Do you like the crackle glaze effect or the sponging? Are there other effects you think I could consider?