Dark Wax and The Muddy Look

I did a few posts recently about dark wax and talked about the danger of making a piece look muddy.  A couple of you asked what "muddy" means, so I thought I would show you on a chest I did previously.  I also want to reinforce that if you don't like how something turns out with your paint or your wax, you can simply paint over it.  No worries. Remember my hope chest? Well, she started out in a color called Provence.

This is a bold color that takes dark wax beautifully.  However.....knowing what I know now, I should have done my application differently.  I went for that all over rub in dark wax and this is what I got..... ick.

See how the wax makes the finish look muddy or dirty?  I did this in long strokes and it just didn't work. I liked how the top part took the wax where the carved detail was but when I got to the middle of the piece - it just didn't look good.

I actually loved the new depth of "color" but I did not like how the wax looked on the chest. Can you see how the dark wax changes the actual color of your paint? This was too much and too messy for me. Muddy is the best way to describe too much dark wax. I like my pieces to have more of an authentic aged look - like it went through years of use and this wasn't working for me.  One of my girls loved the bold color and dark wax, so it's all about  preference.

I repainted this in a much softer and neutral shade and used the dark wax to age it but not cover it.  That suits me much better.  Ahhh :)

Let me know if you have questions about dark wax or waxing in general.

Paula

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