Introduction: How to Create a Faux Concrete Finish on Furniture

By Country Chic Paint
About: Country Chic Paint is a beautiful clay-based furniture paint specifically designed for DIYers with a love for refinishing furniture and home decor. This fabulous paint is ultra low VOC and contains little to n…

Up your faux-finishing game by mastering the technique! Watch our new video tutorial to learn how to create a faux concrete finish on your furniture.

All the products used for this technique can be found at countrychicpaint.com.

Step 1: Create a Base Coat of Texture

Before you dive in, you should always start by making sure your piece is clean and free of contaminants. Once it’s ready to go, you’ll be ready to create a base layer of texture! Start by mixing Texture Powder and Country Chic Paint in the color Lazy Linen in approximately a 1:1 ratio, then apply the textured paint all over the surface of your piece with a putty knife. Don’t worry about making the finish completely smooth as you want to keep some of the edges and peaks in the finish. If you’d like more detailed instructions on how to use Texture Powder, make sure you check out this tutorial.

If you would like to make the texture even a little rougher, let your textured paint layer dry for about 15-20 minutes so it tacks up a bit. Then you can continue to use your putty knife to drag the textured paint around until you’re happy with the finish.

Make sure you let your piece dry at this stage for about 12 hours before you move onto the next step.

Step 2: Add Intrigue With Color

Since concrete isn’t a perfectly uniform grey, what we need to do now is add some depth and highlights so we chose Rocky Mountain and Simplicity. You can use a paint brush or even just a stir stick to quickly dab a few randomly placed splotches of color over your piece. This step does not have to look perfect! You can use your putty knife to scrape the paint and spread it around a bit.

Let it dry at this stage for 1-2 hours before you move onto the next step.

Step 3: Have Fun With Glazing!

To complete this look, we’re going to apply a few different colors of glaze. With our Clear Glaze, you can mix 4 parts glaze with 1 part paint to create any color glaze you like! In this case we’ll be making three different glaze colors; Pebble Beach, Rocky Mountain, and Lazy Linen. If you’d like more detailed instructions on how to mix your own glaze colors, click here. You can also learn more about applying glaze by clicking here.

Use a synthetic bristle paint brush to apply a coat of Pebble Beach tinted glaze all over your piece, then remove the excess with a lint-free rag. Let it dry, then repeat the process two more times with Rocky Mountain glaze and finally Lazy Linen glaze. If you’re not completely happy with the color, you can always do touch ups and add some more glaze layers until you’re satisfied.

Step 4: Watch This Video!

Watch company co-founder, Rosanne demonstrate this technique for you!