Hi friends,

Let me show you this cute project I just finished.

I am a big fan of the Union Jack design. I am actually a big fan of all things England. Do you remember these pieces I painted? I even have a full tutorial on how I painted this Tardis Cabinet in case you want to check it out.

 

 

Every time I see some piece of furniture with a Union Jack painted on it I promise myself my next project will have one too. I was never brave enough to do it on a large piece, so I decided to start small, with this little tray I built in a woodwork workshop I did last year. Here is how the tray looked unfinished.

For this project I used some samples of paint and glaze I was given by a very cool local shop that sells this relatively new brand called Paint Couture. I love to try new products and I thought I already knew all the best products available in the market when it comes to paint furniture. Boy, was I wrong? This stuff is really amazing. I can’t explain it with technical terms. All I can only say it that their paint is delicious to work with it and the final result is beautiful. The finish is smooth even if you work with a brush, it has great coverage a nice subtle sheen, different from chalk paint, which is flat. I can’t wait to try it on bigger pieces. And no, this post is not sponsored by Paint Couture nor the shop.

I will give you the step by step of this project below, but I recommend that you watch my speedy tutorial if you want to try it on your own.

Here is the list of supplies and  I used on this project. Some of thee are affiliate links *

– Paint Couture Angelic

– Paint Couture British Gray

– Glaze Couture Van Dyke Brown

– Fine Sandblock

– Painters Tape (with Edge Lock)

– Zibra Fan Paintbrush

– Small Paint Brush

– Chip Brush

– Clear Wax

– Box Cutter Knife

– Rags

– Large Piece of Cardboard

First of all I found this design of the official Union Jack on the Internet so I could have a better idea of the stripes’ colors, positioning and width. I didn’t follow the measurements with 100% accuracy. This was just a guideline so my flag wouldn’t look totally off.

I cut out a piece of cardboard in the exact same size as the bottom of my tray and using a pencil, a ruler and painters tape, I sketched the flag on the cardboard and put tapes only on the white stripes should be. It took me a few tries and, in the end, my prototype flag looked like this.

With this part done, I was to start painting the tray.

Here are the steps.

1. Light sanded and cleaned the tray with a mix of water and vinegar.
2. Applied two coats of white paint
3. Let the paint dry, and transferred the tapes from my prototype flag to the bottom of my tray, following the same design
4. Painted all triangles gray
5. Painted all the stripes not covered by tape in a light gray made with mix of gray and white paint (half and half)
6. Once paint was dry, removed all tapes revealing the white stripes
7. Did some touch-ups of all three colors where needed using an artist brush
8. Let it all dry, than applied clear wax on the entire tray
9. Applied dark glaze with a chip brush
10. Removed the excess of glaze with a clean rag

In my four-minute video tutorial, you can see the entire process.

I love it, and even feel a little more confident to try this on a bigger scale next time.

More pictures for you.

 

Thanks for reading!

Pat Rios

I’m sharing this project on these awesome link parties.

Silver Pennies Sundays Link Party

To Grandma’s House We Go! 

*If you purchase an item via my affiliate link, I receive a small commission from Amazon. There is no additional cost to you.