Not everyone will agree with me, but I find unrelenting black in a room oppressive, overdone, and boring. You can, however, maintain a darker flavor without sacrificing style. There are many different faux finishes that add depth and character to the piece they are being applied to. Crackle finish is one of them. There are several ways to get a crackle finish and this technique uses a one-part crackle medium, black matte paint, and silver paint.

Examples of the Finish:

Tools and Materials:

1. Unfinished frames (You can get several different kinds at Ikea for really really cheap. 3-5x7 frames or 5 various sized small ones frames for $3)
2. One-part crackle finish ( I used Ralph Lauren's Historic Crackle Medium, aka hydrophilic crackling polymer, which is available at any major hardware store)
3. Silver paint (Ralph Lauren's Duchess Satin Paint in Candlelight Silver)
4. Black matte paint (Painter's Touch Matte Black All Purpose Paint). For the top coat, you must use a matte or satin finish paint, and unfortunately, the Duchess Satin Paints don't crackle.
5. White primer (generic white primer. I ate the can and don't remember the brand)
6. Sandpaper (Norton All Purpose Sanding, Assorted Grits. The medium (100) and fine (150) grit are the ones you are after)
7. Paint brush (I have very nice Purdy brand brushes that I love. I recommend getting decent brushes, as cheap ones shed all over the place.)
8. Paint stirrer
9. Small containers to pour paint from cans (small disposable pie tins are nice for this, small clean food containers anything like that)
10. Flathead screwdriver/scraper, anything to open the cans of paint
11. Mallet/bat, anything to solidly close the cans of paint
12. Painter's cloth/rags (optional, but nice to have for clean up. If you have a rag bag, this is a great time to pull all those soft dead tee-shirts)
13. Tack cloth (optional, but what this is essentially a really sticky cloth, great for wiping down your sanded pieces.)
14. Drop cloth (optional, but highly recommended. I have some generic 2 mil drop clothes that cost about 50 cents. Splurge on some. You can reuse them)
15. Latex rubber gloves (optional, but highly recommended)
16. Varnish (optional) to seal your piece.
17. Foam brush (optional, but really useful if you decide to varnish)

Directions:

1. Sanding the frame: Take your frame and remove the backing and glass. Set them aside in a safe place. Cover your work area with a drop cloth and cover the area you are sanding on with a cut open paper bag, to ease cleaning after this step. Start with the medium grit sandpaper and going with the grain of the wood, smooth any imperfections and splinters. Move down to the fine grit sandpaper and, still with the grain, continue sanding. If you were going to stain or varnish the wood frame, you would then sand with extra-fine grit sand paper. However, since we are painting these frames that step is unnecessary and sanding the frame too smooth is a bad idea. When you are done sanding, wipe the frames well with a tack cloth or rag to remove all residual dust. Before moving on to the next steps, it's really important that you clean up all the dust around you, or move to a different area. If you don't, dust will get in your paint and on your brush. Getting rid of the paper bag at this point should help a lot.

 
2. Priming the frame: This is an easy step. Open your can of primer, use a paint stirrer to stir it up, and then pour some off into a smaller container. This probably seems silly, but you don't want to contaminate your source can with dust, brush hairs, or random gunk. A can of paint goes along way and can be used for several projects, which reduces the cost per project significantly. Anyway, painting with the grain, paint the frame. If you are painting the back, you'll want to do one side, let it dry to the touch, then paint the other side. If you are doing this, make sure that the edges don't get glumpy. If you run you finger along the back edge before it dries, you'll get a smoother finish. And a light touch is recommended. Latex paints can take forever to dry if they are layered too heavily. And you'll get a much cleaner look if you do many light coats of paint. You will probably only need to do one layer of primer.

 
3. Break time! Before you start the next layer of paint, give it lots of time to dry. Read the primer label for exact timing, but leaving it overnight is not a bad plan. So clean your brushes and go have a drink.

 
4. First color layer: This is the paint layer that will show through the top layer of paint. For these frames, it would be either silver or green. You will probably only need one coat for this layer, since it doesn't need to be perfect, as not that much of it will show through. Let this layer dry for at least 8 hours.

 
5. Crackle layer: This is a fun layer. Pour off some of the crackle medium into a smaller container. Brush it on in short strokes in the direction you want it to crackle. I highly recommend using a foam disposable brush, since this stuff is weird and doesn't clean up very well. You have to start the next layer after one hour, but before four hours, have passed.

 
6. Top coat: This is the layer that will crackle. Using the matte black paint, paint this layer. Do it in smooth strokes and DO NOT go back over painted area, since it will pull up the paint already laid down. Let this layer dry for at least 12 hours.

 
7. Varnish: Frames don't really require varnishing, as they don't get touched a lot. However, varnishing does add a nice gloss and an added layer of protection. And if this is on a piece that gets a lot of action, like a table, I recommend at least 2 layers of varnish. Follow the directions on the can, and use a foam or disposable brush, as cleaning up after oil-based products is a huge pain, and you can't use water.

You're done! Now you get to fill your beautiful frames with all sorts of degenerate pictures.