Let me start at the beginning, always the very best place to start (channeling my inner Maria!) Last year we found a small round dining table for our kitchen nook. It came with 4 cane seat chairs, for the unbeatable price of $75! Two of the chairs had busted seats, but I cut them up because they had gorgeous spindles that I wanted to save for future projects...it was easy to chop them off the chair using my Dremel Saw Max!

I stuck all the spindle pieces into an olive bucket and sat it beside our door...hoping to get to them someday. I knew all along that I wanted to create a chippy painted look with them, but I held off because it just seemed like it would be a ton of work but mainly because I wasn't really sure how to get a nice, authentic chippy feel using paint.

A couple weeks ago as we were cleaning off the porches, I pulled all the spindles out of the olive bucket...and screamed in horror! I thought I saw a snake, but it was a skink that slithered out of the grimy depths of the bucket and took off for a safer spot! Unbeknownst to me, the spindles had been sitting in a couple inches of rain water for several weeks, and the ends had turned black and moldy. I fully intended to just toss them in the trash that day. Don't the moldy leaves add a nice effect? Ew!

I'm not even sure what made me Google "chippy paint techniques", but it brought me to this gem of a tutorial and the rest is history, as they say! My spindles were saved to live another day, and it was so much easier than I thought it would be! I followed most of the steps that Debbie used, with the exception of the stain...I skipped that. But I'm going to share my own version here for you, with pictures, so you can see how easy this chippy paint technique is!

And while I'm at it, I'll share some creative ways to use chippy spindles in home decor, so make sure to read all the way to the end!

Supplies 

• sandpaper or a palm sander (I love mine)
• white candle
• chalk paint in color(s) of choice (I used DecoArt Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint in Everlasting)
• paint brush (I threw away all my chip brushes because I'm tired of picking up fallen bristles; this brush never disappoints!)
• razor blade or paint scraper
• rag or paper bag
• chop saw (optional)
• spray polycrylic (optional)

The easiest way to get a chippy painted look

Remember I said that the ends of the spindles had turned black? I really didn't want to paint over that mold or mildew or whatever nasty it was so I had Mr DIY set up the chop saw for me, and I cut all those gross ends right off (you can see them all below). Then I used my palm sander to smooth the cut ends of the spindles.

My spindles were already looking a little chippy because of the stain; I liked the aged looking wood tones. This is where I veered from the original tutorial; I didn't stain my pieces. 

Designer tip: If you're starting with something that is raw wood or very new looking, you'll probably want to give them a coat of stain because that is what will show through the chippy paint that we're going to create.

Take a piece of candle wax and rub it all over the pieces. You may have heard of using wax to resist paint. I've read of doing this for distressing, but I had never heard of using it to create a chippy look. It's very easy, and works really well! Rub the wax well all over your piece, and then rub the candle wax into the wood with your hands. There will be little bits of candle wax left behind and that is totally ok! By the way, this went must faster than I thought it would; I had all my spindles waxed in about 10 minutes!

Painting them is the next step to that amazing chippiness. I lined all my spindles up on a piece of cardboard to paint them. That way I was able to paint all the tops at one time, and then rotated the spindles to paint the rest.

I was hoping that one coat of paint would be enough, but in the end I decided to paint two coats. And honestly, the more paint you have, the better this technique will work! In fact, if you want to get a really multi-colored chippy look (say aqua under white) then just add another layer of wax between each coat of different colored paint.

Just a note with the painting: we're not after a perfect painted finish! Fingerprints, rough spots, thin spots, they are all okay and will add to the authentic age that we are going to create when we start chipping! So just get em painted, don't worry about how it looks!

Everything looks better white, in my opinion! But wait, because the next step is where the magic happens!

Let your paint dry, and then using a razor or paint scraper, just start dragging it over the paint, wherever you want a chippy look. You can go heavy hand, or a lighter hand...it's up to you depending on how chippy you want your spindles to look!

The wax resists the paint, which means you could probably just use your fingernail to scrape paint off (I didn't think to try that!) 

Scrape the paint in multiple directions to get the most authentic look! 

Once you've scraped your spindles and are satisfied with how chippy they look, rub the spindles with a brown paper lunch bag just to smooth the edges and clean all the loose wax from the spindles.

It does give the spindles a bit of a mellower look (see below) so it's a totally optional step. See how there's less contrast with the stain underneath the white paint after I rubbed the spindle with a brown paper bag.

In about an hour, I went from gross, headed-to-the-trash spindles to gorgeous, chippy white spindles!

But now what? Keep reading to find out how to use those chippy spindles in your home decor!

I am currently on the hunt for another old chair or crib to chop up because I've used up all my chippy spindles!

Here is what I made:

• Farmhouse Candleholders using Chippy Spindles
• Chippy Spindle Ornaments
• Chippy White Spindle Tree

Other ideas for using chippy spindles

As always, I'm honored and delighted when you share my projects with your friends!

See you back here soon!