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How To Make Dark Wax For Furniture

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Annie Sloan Wax can be EXPENSIVE!  Yes, I’m sure it has WONDERFUL results ( I haven’t used it so I can’t attest to it) but I have found a great alternative that worked perfectly for the Boys’ Room Furniture.

First I cleaned the furniture really well and used scotchbrite to rough it up a tiny bit.  Then I applied my homemade chalk paint.  I decided to make my own dark wax.  I found this great video tutorial on how to tint wax here.

So with paste wax and stain, I started my science experiment.

I measured out about 1/2 pint of paste finishing wax into a jar and placed it in a pot of water to melt. I heated it on medium heat until it was completely melted.

After it was completely melted, I mixed in about 1 tablespoon of the stain.

Then I let it sit for about an hour and it hardened up nicely.

Now, after applying a clear coat of wax on the drawers, I applied this tinted wax.

Can you tell??  No??
I couldn’t either!!!
I was kind of bummed but I decided try to make the wax darker.
I remelted that same wax and added black oil-based enamel to the melted wax.(Oil based is key.  I do not believe a water based paint will mix with the wax.)
Now THIS is what I was going for.
I applied it generously to the drawers and then buffed it a bit WITHOUT applying clear wax first.  If you don’t want to stain the paint, apply clean wax first, if you want to stain the paint (like I did) don’t apply clear wax first.
Applying the dark wax was scary but once I realized that if I got too much on, it was relatively easy to buff it off with a heavy coat of clear wax.
It was a little uneven so I applied another coat of clear wax on top of it and smoothed it out.




The above results are after being applied to a dark paint.  The results below are after being applied to a light gray paint.
This wax has thrilled me.  I really love the results and I had both the paint and wax so it didn’t cost me a penny!!
You can check out the finished dresser here.
Tinted Wax 3

 

Happy Crafting,

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Comments

  1. Looks great! Glad you are happy with how it turned out. Did you know that Minwax makes a dark paste wax? I had to find mine on Amazon because I couldn’t find it at lowe’s or home depot. But I thought I’d share that info. 🙂
    Kelly

    Reply

  2. I really like how your dark wax turned out! I have used AS dark wax but wouldn’t mind using something a bit cheaper! Great tutorial on how to go about it. Thanks! ~ Jamie

    Reply

  3. Holy cow I am so happy I saw this! I have my tin of Annie Sloan dark wax and the way I use it is to thin it out with paint thinner. It makes it like a glaze, but waxes at the same time so you save a step. It also dries much quicker than glaze or using stain and then still needing to wax. It does make the wax last longer, I have half a can left, but I wasn’t sure what I would do when I ran out. I am totally going to do this!
    Thank you!
    Susan
    SunflowerHugs

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  9. Aren’t you the enterprising one! I think I might have to try this. I bought some lime wax which gives a whitewash finish at a woodworking store, and it cost an arm and a leg for a little bitty tin. I don’t see why this wouldn’t work with clear wax and white paint, do you?

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  10. Thanks so much for sharing a DIY recipe for wax. I live in Canada and am finding it difficult to source out all the most frequently referred to waxes (and I’m cheep, too! ha!:)). I want to give this a try.

    Reply

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  12. I read your instructions for making my own wax for antiquing furniture I painted with chalk paint and it came out awesome thank you! I will make my own chalk paint as I have a lot of furniture to paint!!!! Love your blog! Marti

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  15. I’ve always wondered if paste wax shoe polish would work for this type of application. I’ve yet to try it. But there are a number of shades out there. and it is waxy. And it’s cheap.

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  18. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems
    as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to
    your blog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?

    Reply

  19. First of all I just thought you might like to know – it took forever to see the post because “Free family games” on Womensforem.com kept popping up over your website. I had to keep closing and opening your website to finally see all of your post. I don’t know if you were being spammed or what. That being said – you did a great job on the dresser. Did you use the top of the cabinet for the top of the dresser?

    Reply

  21. Thanks for sharing your process for making dark wax. You are the first person I have found who has gone into such detail. I wish I’d known that oil based paint fact!

    Reply

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  24. Love this idea! I make my own also, but I use the Min-wax and Old English furniture oil-Dark. Works great!

    Reply

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