Project

For our wedding, my Aunt Dianne gave me the most beautiful, but, more importantly, a very special set of China - her China that she has been collecting piece by piece since the year I was born. She said that it is also one of the last designs made in the USA. How neat is that!? She also gave it with a sweet note saying not to save it for "special occasions", that some of the most ordinary days have turned into special ones.

With that in mind, I wanted to have it out all the time ... but safely out too hahaha So I started to come up with a plan and it involved finding the perfect piece to display it on. I found a cute little shop and it had some things like what I had in mind, but not exactly what I wanted. Well, last weekend Matt & I finally stopped into a shop we have past a few times and been interested in and there on the wall was what I was looking for! I bought it.

It isn't an antique like I wanted, but has crackle paint on it making it look aged. It has a little lip on the display and two indents that will also hold the plate in place without putting weight or pressure on the lip. That's what I really like - I'll be able to display one of the plates without blocking it like some other plate displays do (with a bar in the front) and it won't need to be directly hung on the wall either. I love the crackle paint, but it's not going to stand out against the white section of the kitchen where we've been hanging important pieces.

So... aside from just finding this display piece, I needed to get crafty.

Getting crafty involves Darcy, which is nice because I've been missing her. We did so much talking & planning for wedding stuff and then got busy afterwards.

Darcy met me at a local craft store that I love and I had in mind to find a different color crackle paint. Darcy had a different plan though - the crackle paint takes several steps and her idea was cheaper, which I of course need to keep in mind. So, Dar had me pick out the paint color I wanted and told me just to add water to it with that idea that I would "white"-wash the crackle paint already on the piece to achieve the look I wanted. I picked a gorgeous blue to help the blue on the China pop a bit more... and I love blue.

Blue-washing commenced today while Matt & his brother Michael were outside taking down a large dead branch off a tree in our yard. I love seeing them working together because I know how special the time is to Matt - being constructive with Michael. He loves it.

What do you think?

My first try was way too runny/watery - it wasn't retaining at all. So, I tried several different ratios with the paint and water. Honestly, I can't tell you which worked best because I kept changing it and eventually started layering it too - painting, changing the ratio & painting over the last coat. I turned on a fan to help it dry as I got it to a version that I really liked - blue, but still with a lot of the crackle paint showing through.

Like I mentioned, we have a section of the kitchen wall we've been hanging important pieces. So, after the display piece had dried and Michael had left, Matt measured, leveled, marked the wall and pre-drilled holes for the anchors he got. Matt and I then picked out the plate we wanted to display. Some room was left over, so we picked out two tea cups that fit as well... and I think it looks amazing!