Snap, Crackle, and Flop

My crackle experience has been one of mixed emotions.

I am really pleased with the entertainment center. (its hinges are currently drying from the ZipStrip and the quick black spray paint they got) So, it is not camera ready quite yet.....

The bulletin board is painted, but not recovered yet....

and the table...

flop

I wasn't overly pleased with the table from the start... then I messed it up more.

It went from black to white to crackle. The crackle job looked really good...

 

in places.

But, in other spots, it crackled a bit too much...

It's  my fault. I saw someone post online that when they did it, they made sure to have a good, heavy load of paint on the brush. You can't really go over it twice. It is like the crackle sucks all the moisture out if the paint immediately. It is actually a pretty neat process to watch. Better than normally just wanting paint dry. (hehe) I took this advice to heart and loaded 'er up! Gravity was working against me though. Luckily, I did this piece first, so I knew better for the entertainment center. But, I didn't learn my lesson until I saw the teal paint dripping onto the carpet... oops...

I had plans to salvage this crackle job anyway. I was going to just paint over it all with a Cowboy Tan. (what we have left over from the living room and what I am going to use in places up here). I thought it would look cool one color with the crackle texture underneath. That was until I put a spray bottle of cleaner on it overnight this weekend... oops... it somehow left a ring of doom that will not go away. It also bubbled the paint. 

And then, I made it worse by trying to get the ring to be less noticeable.

So, now I have a crackled, bubbled, ringed, peeled coffee table. It is on hold until we can figure out a solution. My suggestion was to just strip it all and start over by just painting it. We'll see...


I am not a crackle hater. I actually really like it. This piece has just had problems. I was a bit unhappy with it before the ring, bubbles, and disaster struck. I'm not really happy with the color choice. I feel that I need to have my leg-warmered ankles propped up on it as I crimp my hair and smack my bubble gum. It screamed 80s as soon as the paint dried. :)

I will post crackle successes soon. This table is just becoming a nemesis :).