How to Glaze Over Chalk Paint

Make your painted furniture stand out from the rest with an antiqued glazed finish. Here’s the best way to glaze over chalk paint!

Get more painting techniques for furniture here!

Dresser before painting with chalk paint and applying antiquing glaze

Antiquing glaze on top of chalk paint can make any details on your furniture pop out! But there are a few tricks that you should know about before you start trying to glaze over chalk paint.

If you don’t take these steps, you’ll most likely end with a mess on your hands. And that’s just frustrating because painting furniture is time-consuming!

So let’s dig into how to glaze over chalk paint!

Table of Contents

Supplies Used to Glaze Over Chalk Paint

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Country Chic Paint in Peacoat and in Jitterbug
Antiquing Glaze
Cheap Paint Brush for the Glaze: I like the dollar store brushes for glazing
Disposable Gloves
Baby Wipes: Any brand should work, but the less lint the better.
The Best Water-Based Polyurethane
400 Grit Sandpaper OR SurfPrep’s Foam Sanding Pads (get 10% off with the code RAY10)
Tack Cloth
My Paint Sprayer – Fuji Q4 Paint Sprayer
Paint Filters for the Paint Sprayer
Respirator
Best Paint Brushes: If you don’t want to spray the paint on, I love Zibra paint brushes the best. Particularly the round paint brush.

Paint Dresser Blue with Chalk Paint

First I prepped it for paint. Check out this post on how to prepare furniture for paint to learn all of our tips to get the best paint finish. I also sanded down the top and restained it.

Sanding the dresser with a SurfPrep sander

Mixing peacoat and jitterbug paint to get the blue color

To create this stunning blue, I used a mix of two Country Chic Paint colors, ¼ Peacoat and ¾ Jitterbug mixed together.

I sprayed it on with my Fuji Q4 paint sprayer that I love so so so much! This thing sprays like a dream for a completely perfect, fine finish. Learn more about my Fuji Q4 Platinum paint sprayer here!

I add a little bit of water to my chalk paint and always, always run it through a mesh filter to make sure no clumps or anything can clog my sprayer.

Using a Fuji paint sprayer to paint the dresser blue

You could brush the chalk paint on as well, and this method will work with basically any brand of chalk paint. I just love Country Chic paint and these colors.

Check out my honest and detailed Country Chic Paint Review here.

Here are the best chalk paint brushes and here’s how to paint furniture without brush marks.

I sprayed on three coats of paint, letting the chalk paint dry completely in between coats. While I waited for the last coat to dry, I cleaned out my paint sprayer and let it dry.

Learn the best way to clean a Fuji Q4 paint sprayer in this post!

Topcoat Chalk Paint with Waterbased Polyurethane

When the chalk paint was all dry, I put my absolute favorite topcoat in it. The Varathane polyurethane is water-based and gives the paint a really nice durable finish.

Spraying polyurethane on blue painted dresser

I put the poly through the mesh filter, and then I added just a little bit of water to make the poly take a little bit longer to dry.

Check out this post about how to spray polyurethane for my best tips on spraying it.

If it takes a little bit longer to dry, then it will have more time to spread out and lay flat, making the finish even more perfect and much more soft and smooth.

Anyway, I sprayed one good coat of poly all over the chalk paint.

Do You Seal Chalk Paint Before Applying Glaze?

YES! This step with the poly is really crucial to having success with glazing over chalk paint.

If you don’t put a coat or two of poly over the chalk paint, the glaze will soak right into the really porous chalk paint, making it impossible to work with the glaze.

Learn more about topcoats for painting furniture here!

Sanding In Between Coats of Polyurethane

So I let that coat of poly dry, and then I sanded it smooth with a fine or very fine SurfPrep foam sponge (which is about the equivalent to 400 grit sandpaper).

Sanding by hand between coats of polyurethane on blue painted furniture

The sanding isn’t required, but man oh man, it really helps make the final finish really soft and smooth. I didn’t push hard when I sanded by hand. I just lightly sanded it to help smooth it out.

After it was all soft and smooth, I used my shop vac to suck up all the dust and followed it up with a wipe down with a sticky tack cloth.

Vacuuming the dust off the blue painted dresser

These tack cloths really really really pick up any extra dust that is left over. And they don’t leave any lint behind.

They do feel really funny (and sticky) though, so a lot of times I wear a glove when I use a tack cloth.

When all of the dust was completely gone, I sprayed one more coat of poly all over the dresser. Then I let it dry for extra long.

How Long to Wait Before Glazing Over Chalk Paint

After 24 hours, it’s safe to start glazing! I like to let the poly on the chalk paint dry at least overnight, but really it’s best if it sits for 24 hours before moving on to the next step.

If you start glazing before the poly has a chance to really dry hard and start to cure, then all of the moisture from the glaze will go right through the still soft poly and right to your paint.

Then when you start wiping and working with the glaze, the paint can easily rub off.

Glaze Over Chalk Paint with Valspar Antiquing Glaze

I poured some glaze into a plastic bowl so I could add a bit of water to it. I like to add water to my glaze so then it takes a bit longer to dry, giving me more time to work with it.

Pouring valspar antiquing glaze into a bowl

Adding a little bit of water to the antiquing glaze

Now it’s time to actually start glazing!!

I typically use a super cheap paint brush from the dollar store for glazing, but I didn’t have any on hand. So I grabbed my favorite brush for everything else, the Zibra round brush.

How to Apply Glaze Over Chalk Paint

I brushed the glaze on in one small section, making sure to get the glaze in any corner or detail.

Brushing the glaze on blue dresser with a paintbrush

I like to let the glaze sit for probably 20-40 seconds. But I don’t want the glaze to dry before I can get back to it. Then, wearing gloves, I used a baby wipe to wipe off most of the glaze.

Wiping most of the glaze off dresser with a baby wipe

This first coat of glaze is really just a light coat that puts the glaze all over. We’ll go back with another coat to add more glaze in certain spots.

Whenever I wipe off the glaze, I try to wipe in the same direction that the wood grain would be going. And I try to use long strokes instead of short strokes.

In these panels, I kind of pushed the glaze into the top and bottom, but I also tried to pick up most of the glaze and not leave it all in the edges.

I slowly made my way around the whole dresser, working in small sections, or on one drawer at a time.

It’s kind of hard to see the glaze once I wiped most of it off, especially because of the dark paint, and the shadows.

But I promise there was just a little bit of glaze left over the entire dresser. Just one thin and even coat all over.

How Long Should Glaze Dry

Then I let the glaze dry for a day. If you put wet glaze over glaze that hasn’t had a long time to dry, then the 2^nd coat of glaze will just pull up the 1^st coat of glaze.

So you have to really let the 1^st coat of glaze dry completely before moving on. I know, there is a lot of wait time in this project. But it’s totally worth it in my opinion!

Applying More Glaze

Once the first coat was dry, I came back with the same brush (that I had kept wrapped up in plastic to keep it wet) and put just a bit of glaze in the areas that I wanted some shading.

Mostly in the corners and edges of the piece.

Blue painted dresser with glaze in the corners and edges

Wiping and blending some of the glaze off with a wipe

Then I wiped some of it back off, trying to keep some of the glaze still there, but also trying to blend it into the light, thin first coat of glaze.

I’m not going to lie, this part is probably the hardest part for me.

Just the wetness of wiping with a baby wipe will make the finish look different until it dries again. So it’s hard to tell exactly what it’s going to look like.

So I just try to get it to look the best that I can tell, and honestly hope for the best. Haha At this point it’s not so much science, but it’s a lot of artistry and playing around until it looks good.

Once I was happy with one section, I moved around the rest of the dresser until there was shadowing in all of the details.

One little tip – if you hate how the glaze looks, you can always paint over it and start again.

OR you can tint some clear glaze with the paint color of the dresser. Then put the blue glaze over the dry brown glaze on the dresser to blend in the colors and kind of hide the brown glaze.

After I was overall happy with the glaze, I let the glaze dry overnight.

Topcoat Glaze with Waterbased Polyurethane

The next day I put more poly into my paint sprayer, and sprayed 3 more coats of poly onto the dresser, letting each coat dry completely.

Spraying 3 more coats of waterbased polyurethane to glazed blue painted dresser

I also sanded the poly smooth in between coats to make it extra soft and smooth. Watch the full video tutorial here!

Here’s what this dresser looks like now!

Closeup of navy blue dresser with dark glaze

full shot of blue painted dresser with glaze and gold hardware

More Before And After Makeovers

Click any of these “before” photos below to view the “after” of that makeover.

Side view of blue painted glazed dresser with gold hardware

Glazing isn’t for the faint of heart, or for a really fast project, but man, isn’t that antiqued look worth it?!

What Does Glaze Do for Paint?

It accentuates any details that you have on your furniture because it stays in the grooves of any details. It also makes the paint color richer and deeper.

Do You Have to Put a Clear Coat Over Chalk Paint?

Yes! Chalk paint is super porous and anything that you put on it will soak into the paint.

So the glaze will soak right into the chalk paint, and you won’t have any chance to remove the glaze, or move it around. The polyurethane clear coat makes it possible to work with the glaze.

Should I Use Wax or Polyurethane Over Chalk Paint?

I prefer the durability of polyurethane over chalk paint. Plus, if you mess up and want to paint over it, you don’t have to remove the wax (paint doesn’t stick to wax!) before painting again.

When you’re glazing though, you can’t use wax on the chalk paint. Glaze won’t stick to wax!

If you want to wax, you’ll want to use a mixture of clear wax and antiquing wax to create the antiqued glazed look. Check out my detailed comparison between glaze vs wax over chalk paint here.

How Many Coats of Polyurethane Over Chalk Paint?

Apply one coat of polyurethane before glazing the chalk paint. Apply three coats of polyurethane after the glaze.