Re: White chalky paint

There are a lot of "faux" (pronounced "foe") finishes out there now, and there are a lot of antiquing kits for doing just what you're talking about. It's fairly easy to do. Go to a local library or bookstore and look at books on furniture refinishing or furniture painting, find the effect you like, and follow the instructions.

-- Ernie

There are too many possibles for us to advise without seeing a picture. Could you post a picture to alt.binaries.pictures.furniture ?

White paint finishes are modern - old paints would _always_ discolour and yellow somewhat. A nice rustic finish that's easy to give a patina to is to use milk paint, buff it gently with a coarse cloth to apply some "age" and then finish it with oil and wax. It won't work convincingly for white those.

How this piece woudl be done commercially is to use a whit eemulsion paint (as you'd use for walls) and then either mix with it, or apply over the top a coat of an acrylic glaze. This glaze is available as very expensive tiny quantities from decorator shops, or cheaply by the gallon from good paint shops. I suggest you find a book on paint effects by Jocasta Innes or Annie Sloane, and take it from there.

You could use an old traditional white paint for stonework, such as distemper, but this is very fragile and would need oiling to give it any strength at all. Even then, I don't think it would last.

Another possibility is liming wax. This needs an unfinished hardwood like ash, beech or oak. You brush it with a bronze wire bruch to open up the grain, apply the white-coloured liming wax, then give an overcoat of clear wax.