How To Make A Window Look Old with Crackle Paint

Old windows are full of character and charm, and with the right techniques, you can make them look even more vintage! In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use crackle paint to create a beautifully distressed, aged look on an old window frame, perfect for adding a touch of rustic décor to your home.

I love to collect old windows. Like so much that it’s almost a hoarder-like problem. But, let me be clear. I own a SUPER OLD house! Many of the windows are wavy glass. So, I figure, when people are getting rid of their old wood windows because they upgraded to vinyl, why not snatch them up and save the glass in case I need it one day!

Now, I get it, you may be thinking, how often do you break windows at your house? HAHA! Well, I do have a couple of broken windows due to our house fire, so the glass I have will be used for those. Plus, my husband just cut glass last week to replace the glass on the rabbit hutch door due to an uninvited baseball 🥴

I also get the crafty bug when I’m supposed to be cleaning or doing something I don’t want to do! Funny how that works.

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Materials You’ll Need

• wood frame window
• Dixie Belle Crackle
• Dixie Belle Hurricane Gray chalk paint
• Dixie Belle Drop Cloth chalk paint
• Dixie Belle Gator Hide
• paint brush – I used the mini flat

Set Up Your Workspace

It was a really nice day, so I crafted this project outdoors. I lined my outdoor dining table with newspaper and got busy.

However, if the weather hadn’t been nice, I would have painted in my indoor craft room…one of the awesome features about Dixie Belle products is they are low VOC. Truly I can’t smell anything when I use them. Even my friends who have extreme asthma and allergies are able to use these paints with ease.

Preparing The Window Frame

I used an old window that was distressed because it actually was old! However, after hanging outside on my house for a few years, the Wisconsin harsh winters had basically removed all of the chippy paint and it was just bare wood…boring!

I took a paint scraper and gently removed any loose paint and then blew it all off with the leaf blower (I’m so resourceful!). I go into greater detail with how to prep items, furniture, etc before painting in my Paint Furniture Like A Pro Guide eBook.

Apply The Base Coat of Paint

The trick with creating a crackle paint finish is by using two contrasting colors for the base coat and a top coat. The base coat is the color that will show through the crackles. Meaning, once the top coat “cracks” the color that is underneath will show!

For my window, I chose Dixie Belle Hurricane Gray, a lovely shade of creamy gray. I painted my entire window frame and let it dry. Because I was painting outside and it was sunny, the paint was dry by the time I ran inside to wash my paintbrush and brew a cup of coffee! {My favorite kinds of DIYs are FAST DIYs!}

Apply The Crackle Coat

While there are various methods that you can use to create a crackle paint finish – like using liquid Elmer’s Glue, Vasoline or even just 100 grit sandpaper, I chose to use Dixie Belle’s Crackle because it’s so easy and produces the most amazing results!

The Crackle is almost like a clear slimy gel. It’s thick and is sticky. The thicker you apply the Crackle, the better/more prominent your cracks will be! You can see how thick I applied it in the below photos.

Tips: work quickly, don’t dawdle. Also, don’t brush the Crackle coat too thin. It’s absolutely fine if it doesn’t look super pretty or like a very professional finish. That will just make the final product look more realistic!

Allow the Crackle to dry thoroughly. If you don’t you risk smearing the paint underneath and not achieving the distressed wood look.

Wash your paint brush with cold water in the sink.

Apply The Top Coat of Paint

Once the Crackle coat has completely dried, it’s time to add the top coat! I chose my all-time favorite color of Dixie Belle Drop Cloth. It’s the best creamy, cream color ever! Pairing it with the Hurricane Gray, just looks so nice!

To apply the paint, paint like usual, however, don’t worry about achieving perfect full coverage. It’s OK if things are messy looking. Again, this just helps achieve a real distressed look.

The top coat of paint begins to crackle almost immediately once it’s applied over top the Crackle. Don’t go back over the paint and apply more top coat once it begins to crackle, you’ll mess up the cracked look.

In the photo below you can see the process of the paint crackling:
A) Right after the top paint coat was applied
B) About 1 minute later

Applying The Sealer

This part is actually optional. You do not need to seal the crackled paint, however, because I hang my window outside, it’s exposed to rain and snow. So, I sealed it with Gator Hide which repels water!

I applied the sealer coat once all of the other layers of paint and Crackle were dry. The sealer is applied just like any paint coat. Use a brush and brush on a light layer of sealer!

Displaying The Final Project

Once everything was dry, I hung the wooden window frame back up on my house, just where it was before, except this time with a whole new finish!

I’m really happy with how it turned out! A quick and easy project that took less than 2 hours from start to finish. Woot!

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