Sunday, February 15, 2015

Methods To Recreate Rustic Restaurant Furniture From Newer Pieces

By Beryl Dalton


The concept of antiquing has received a great deal of negative press due to people faking antiques. However, the methods utilized in creating fakes have other legitimate uses. One such use would be to create the appearance of rustic restaurant furniture to give the family business a new old look.

Some large retail chain restaurants have utilized this strategy, and the results have caught on. Many of the furnishings and decoration have that antique look and feel. However, when one considers the number of locations which must be decorated in this way, it becomes clear that these cannot be actual antiques.

Glazing is one method which creates a distressed or antique look to any piece, and is a method commonly used in household kitchens. It is fairly simple to learn, and similar results can be achieved in a large variety of color schemes. As a rule, one will start with a light base coat and utilize a darker earth-tone glaze over that.

Often it will be necessary to cover the piece with a primer, being sure to do a light sanding over any glossy surfaces. Then do a full base coat, allowing the piece to dry for several hours, or overnight. At that point the paint and glaze mixture can be lightly brushed on, and then wiped off with a clean cloth to remove excess wet paint and glaze mixture till the desired effect is achieved.

This glaze is generally wiped off in a horizontal fashion, or along the wood grain on picture frames, utilizing the same basic stroke for each swipe. It is also nice to make a marbled effect when one does a ragging off with the cloth rather than the swipes used in antiquing. For each method, a little practice is recommended until the artist knows exactly what end result they prefer.

Prior to the paint and glaze, one can create actual distress by taking a hammer and creating chips in the wood. This can make even a brand new item look roughed up, and once the glazing is complete the piece really can appear to have been handed down. Try making the look complete by rusting any metal hardware that goes onto it.

There are a few methods utilized to create rust in metals, including touches of actual rust-colored metallic paint. However, if one wishes to have real rust, then the item will need to be left outdoors for a period of time, often buried. Knowing that, it is amusing to go into restaurants and see if you can identify pieces which have been buried versus ones that were spattered with rust-colored metal paint.

Not only hardware for furnishings gets rusted, but any recreated farming tools or equipment will need to get the treatment. In fact, by burying the thing in the yard, one can get the newest machete to look like it belonged to a great, great ancestor. Just place it above a printed family photo placed in an antiqued frame, and you can almost bring a corner of the living room back to the past.




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