A CRACKLING GOOD FINISH
There is no mistaking New York–state folk artist Karin Pender’s devotion to Americana because it’s painted all over her dining room, where a dramatic crackle-finish
American flag covers two walls from floor to ceiling. Here’s how she did it.
Materials Interior paint in brown for base coat Interior paint in red, beige and blue Crackle medium Paintbrushes, rollers and sponges, including a small paintbrush for edging around stars Antiquing stain Painter’s tape Level Ruler Pencil Iron barn star or other star template
Instructions Base Coat and Marking 1. Paint base coat on both walls. Let it dry thoroughly. Karin chose dark brown for an aged look.
2. Carefully measure out and mark equal-width stripes, leaving the top half of one wall unmarked for the blue canton. As a guide, take the vertical measurement of the wall and divide it by the number of stripes you want; for example, on an 8-foot wall with six stripes, each stripe would measure 16 inches high. Red and Beige Stripes 3. Tape off the first area to be treated. Karin worked with one stripe color at a time, starting with the red stripes. “Wherever you see a different color, it’s a three-step process: base coat, crackle and topcoat,” she explains. 4. Apply crackle medium
to the area for the red stripes following the manufacturer’s instructions and let it dry. Using a brush to apply the crackle will result in bigger cracks that run the same direction as the brush strokes; a sponge will produce finer, hairline cracks in the finish. 5. After the crackle medium has dried, apply the red topcoat and let it dry for about 24 hours before moving on to the beige stripes. Remove tape. 6. Repeat steps 3–5 for the
beige stripes. Blue Canton and Stars 7. To create the stars, Karin measured placement carefully and then traced around an iron barn star onto the brown base coat.
8. Apply crackle medium over the base coat only on the areas that will be blue, using a small brush to edge around each star. Let dry. 9. Apply blue topcoat over crackle medium applied in step 8, using the small brush to edge around each star. Let dry. 10. Tape off blue area around each star. Apply crackle medium to interior of stars and let dry. After the crackle medium has dried, apply beige topcoat. Let dry and remove tape. Antiquing 11. After the paint treatment is completely dry—give it a few days to a week— apply antiquing stain for old-fashioned character.