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 *
– Glaze Couture Van Dyke Brown
– Fine Sandblock
– Painters Tape (with Edge Lock)
– Small Paint Brush
– 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.
- Light sanded and cleaned the tray with a mix of water and vinegar.
- Applied two coats of white paint
- Let the paint dry, and transferred the tapes from my prototype flag to the bottom of my tray, following the same design
- Painted all triangles gray
- Painted all the stripes not covered by tape in a light gray made with mix of gray and white paint (half and half)
- Once paint was dry, removed all tapes revealing the white stripes
- Did some touch-ups of all three colors where needed using an artist brush
- Let it all dry, than applied clear wax on the entire tray
- Applied dark glaze with a chip brush
- 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
*If you purchase an item via my affiliate link, I receive a small commission from Amazon. There is no additional cost to you.