Crackle paint can give your project a whole new outlook with a significant variation in texture. You can buy crackle glazes of paint for about $10 to $25+, but you can save the money and make it yourself. All you need is glue, chalk paint, or latex paint. Creating paint crackles with glue is also not a time-consuming process. You don’t need many supplies, and you most likely will already have them at home. So, if you’re ready to create your own paint crackles, here’s how to do it with glue.

Steps on How to Make Crackle Paint with Glue

While chalk and latex paints provide great results, acrylic paints won’t provide a great crackling effect. So, it’s best to avoid it altogether. So, here are the steps you must follow to create crackle paint that looks fantastic.

Gather the Supplies You’ll Need

You will need the following supplies to create paint crackles.

• Latex paint or chalk paint (use any color that you like and a dark grey or black paint for effective crackles)
• Glue (consider using wood glue because you’ll find it easy to work with it)
• Paintbrush
• Hairdryer
• Scrap wood (use this to practice the first time that you try to create crackle paint)

It’s best to gather the supplies before starting to create paint crackles. As a result, you can work with a continuous flow. Creating paint crackles with glue is a time-sensitive process. So, you must make sure that you’re focused only on this process when you start it.

Paint a Piece Scrap Wood Black or Dark Grey

You should try to create crackle paint on a piece of scrap wood instead of on high-quality furniture. The first attempt won’t be your best. So, it’s best to get the hang of it on something that you won’t mind ruining. You can follow the same steps when creating paint crackles on other surfaces.

Start by painting the scrap wood dark grey or black latex or chalk paint. Cover all of the scrap wood with paint. That said, don’t worry about coating the paint evenly or well. This paint coat will provide the color under the top coat of paint crackles. Therefore, it will be barely visible, so you can use low-quality paint for this coat.

Apply the Glue to Create the Crackle Paint

Give the base coat of dark grey or black paint enough time to dry. Next, squirt a significant amount of glue all over the piece of scrap wood. Wood glue tends to dry fairly quickly. Therefore, you should squirt glue in sections when you’re painting a large piece of wood. The crackle paint won’t look great on dried glue.

Use Your Paintbrush to Smear the Glue

Smear the glue all over the section of the scrap wood with your paintbrush. So, you must aim to coat a thick layer of glue on the appropriate section of the scrap wood. Thus, you can get bigger crackles by adding more glue to the wood. On the other hand, you can create small crackles with a thin layer of glue. If you want to bring some variation in the crackle paint, you can keep some parts of glue thick and some thin. Moreover, doing so will also make the crackle effect look more real.

Harden the Top Layer of Glue with a Hairdryer

You must form a skin on top of the glue. This way, you can add the paint without letting the rest of the glue dry. The skin will not let the paint mix with the glue. Thus, you should use a hairdryer for about 1 minute for this process over the glue.

Apply the Coat of Crackle Paint

You can now safely apply the final coat of crackle paint. Pick a color that you like the best. So, drag the paint across the piece of scrap wood with your paintbrush. Make sure not to apply too much pressure to your paintbrush to prevent breaking the top layer of glue. Moreover, don’t worry about brush strokes on the paint because this won’t show later on.  

It’s best to stick with just one color for the final coat of paint. This way, you won’t risk drying the glue while you switch paints. That said, if you wish to create colorful crackle paint, you should work in sections. Use different colors for the final coats on specific sections.

Dry the Coat of Paint with Your Hairdryer

Consider using a low setting on your hairdryer to dry the paint quickly. If you can wait, leave the wood, and the crackle paint will begin to show on its own. So, what happens is that the top layer of paint shrinks when the glue under it dries, causing it to crackle.

If the crackles aren’t even on the wood, the thickness of the glue was not even. On the other hand, if some parts didn’t crackle, that’s because the glue dried before you painted it.

It’s best to practice creating crackle paint because you can determine how much time you need.  In addition to that, you’ll know how to use the glue’s thickness to create unique designs.

Last Few Words on Crackle Paint

Undoubtedly, you can make crackle paint through this affordable method instead of buying crackle glazes. However, you will need to be spot on with your timing, which you can develop with some practice. For more craft ideas, look here!