DIY Refurbishing an Awesome Garage Sale Find

Have you ever seen something at a garage sale or a thrift store and love it but it doesn't match your décor or it is just really grungy looking? Well, fix it! Its easier than you think and doesn't take long at all... I found this awesome shelf for $5 at a garage sale recently and fixed it up so it goes fantastically great in my living room and even matches my color scheme and it was all less than $15.

 

Here's the grungy old shelf I saw at a garage sale for $5 and thought, man that could be something totally awesome. Can you see it? If you have a knack for this type of stuff it's easy to see the potential in something even at its worst. If you don't have a knack, that's ok, looking at stuff like this can help you with that and give you more ideas!

 

For my shelf I decided I wanted to have a crackle effect. Don't worry, it's not as hard as it sounds!

First I sanded the whole shelf down to get rid of any rough areas and the possibilities of splinters.

 

Now to begin the paint and crackle effect. For a crackle effect you are going to need two different colors, a base color and a top coat. The base color will be what comes through your top coat in the crackle effect. For mine I chose black for the base and red for the top coat.

For the type of paint the bottom coat doesn't much matter, I used a can of black spray paint. The top coat however needs to be an acrylic for the crackle to work; I happened to have leftover paint from painting an accent wall in my house which worked perfectly!

 

First step: paint your item with the base coat, fairly even coverage but not a huge deal if it isn't perfect that's what gives part of the aged look you get with crackle. Allow the base coat to completely dry.

 

Second step: After the base coat is dry, you can apply the crackle formula. I used Folkart crackle from Michael's craft store and it was about $6. You will brush this on with a paint brush and keep in mind, the thicker you put it on the wider and deeper your crackling will turn out and the thinner you put it on the less the crackle will show through. I chose to do a medium coat, not to heavy and not too thin.

 

 

 

 

After the crackle application is finished and dry you can now apply your final coat, the top coat. Again, with your top coat you don't want to glob it on too thick or the crackle wont be able to break through it. Apply an even coat over the entire piece and as it begins to dry you will start to see the crackle showing through...

Allow your top coat to dry completely and BOOM, you are done and now have an awesome refurbished project just how you like!