Tutorial ~ Glazing and "Dry Glazing"

I've mentioned "dry glazing" in a few of my past projects, I might have even promised you a tutorial...I always keep my promises, eventually sometimes. ;)

Dry glazing is super easy, and maybe some of you consider this regular glazing if you do it this way all of the time. When I first discovered glazing I used the tutorial from Brooke at All Things Thrifty. Heart her! It basically translates into slathering it all on and wiping it off so it only stays in the cracks. What about the flat, non-cracky portions that need depth and character? Dry glazing is the perfect way to glaze a flat surface. I also find it less messy and time consuming for in the cracks, too.

First off, mix your glaze if you are using a custom color. I use mostly black, so I bought a small can of the tintable glaze and just had them do it it black. For custom colors I keep a clear glaze around. Simply follow the mixing instructions on the back. It's 4-8 parts glaze to 1 part of the latex paint color of your choice. Here are the products I use:

The left is what I had Lowe's tint black for me. The right is what I use to mix my own colors.

Glazing is likely the last step of whatever furniture transformation you are undertaking. So, this tutorial assumes that you've already sanded, primed, painted, or restored your piece however you chose. Check out my spray painting tutorial here! Dampen your paint brush, squeeze out the excess water, and dry off with a paper towel. This is as damp a towel as you should use! Do not wet the paper towel directly and squeeze out the excess, it will be too wet for you to use. Dip just the end of your bristles into the glaze and wipe off all the excess on the side of your glaze container. Wipe, wipe, wipe! If you are using this in the nooks of your piece, I simply paint in between them - without wiping off as much glaze beforehand. If you prefer to get a little messy, you can still slather it on - but since you wiped most of the glaze off there won't be as much cleanup when wiping the excess of your piece. This eliminates a thousand trips to the sink to rinse out your rag. Another benefit to painting along the cracks instead of slathering glaze all over is that it stays more readily where you want it.

Take the following picture, for example. When you slather the glaze on it stays very well in the center area, but along the exterior when you wipe it off it all just comes off!

If the look you get from painting it on is too thick simply brush your bristles on the damp paper towel you are using before putting it to your piece of furniture. This is also necessary when glazing the flat surfaces. I personally take it easy on the flat surfaces with glaze. Sometimes when you add too much black glaze it just looks dirty. After all the excess glaze is wiped onto your paper towel, sparsely and lightly brush over the flat areas. I use the same paper towel to wipe where I put my glaze; this blends the glaze more so it doesn't look like you just went crazy with a paint brush. Even though that's what you did. :) Just keep adding to get the look you want. If you mess up, simply wet a rag and wipe it off completely.

I used the flat glazing technique on this peacock feather table. I went a little heavier with the glaze since it was gold. I wanted the whole piece to look like it had pretty gold undertones. This particular piece I topped off with polycrylic. Although, I normally do not do this after glazing, I did it to protect the hand painted feathers. I think it made the glazing look even better - it spread it out some more and eliminated any uneven coverage. The blue chair back pictured above was not polycryliced.

This little turquoise table I went glaze crazy with! I love how the top has a striped effect! It looks fabulous!!!

And there you have it! Just be sure not to wipe it down or clean  it for 30 days (that's what my glaze recommends) otherwise all that hard work will be wiped away!!!

Let me know if you have any questions! I'd love to answer them! ;)