DIY Faux Vintage Paint Brushes

Hey hey Fiddle Leaf friends! Grab a cup of coffee and read up for a SUPER quick and easy DIY you can do THIS weekend – faux vintage paint brushes! Most of the materials for this DIY you probably already have.  If not, a quick virtual run to Amazon should get you there!  I’ve always loved the look if vintage paint brushes but I’ve never loved the price.  Just do a quick Etsy or Ebay search for vintage paint brushes and you’ll see how pricey they can be, especially when you add shipping! YIKES!

So, I set out to make some of my own with inexpensive paint brushes and materials I already had around the house. This project cost less than $45 (cost of the brushes) since I had all of the other materials – you can spend that much on just ONE authentic vintage brush! All of my brushes are from Amazon and they all arrived within 4-5 days.  If you have used brushes laying around you can use those too – the more used they are, the better!

So let’s get started!

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What You’ll Need:

• Paintbrushes
  • Here are the exact one’s I purchased: Brush 1 | Brush 2 | Brush 3 | Brush 4 | Brush 5 | Brush 6
• White Vinegar
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Table Salt
• Small Bowl
• Extra Paint Brush
• Acrylic Paint (I only used black, but you can add whatever colors you want, and you can really use whatever paint you have lying around for this, doesn’t have to be acrylic)
• Brown Antiquing Wax
• Elmer’s Glue (optional)

These are the brushes straight out of the packaging – shiny and new! Let’s fix that! 😉

How To:

Step 1: Mix together 8oz hydrogen peroxide, 1oz white vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of salt in a small washable bowl. Using your extra paint brush, paint the mixture onto the metal portions of your brushes.  If you have nice weather, doing this out in the sun will speed up the process.  You’ll have to repeat this process several times until you get the rusted look you want.

I bet you have these items already in your pantry or bathroom cabinets!

Step 2: Once your brushes are sufficiently rusted and dried, use your antiquing wax, paint, and glue and just go to town!

You truly can’t go wrong here. Here’s what I used each material for:

WAX: I added wax to age the handles of the wood brushes; I ran it through the bristles of some of the brushes so “dirty” them up, and I globbed it on parts of the handles and metal portions to add some texture

PAINT: I painted one handle completely – the red one, since I didn’t like the color.  Then I just used dipped some of my brushes into the paint as you would if you were truly painting something.  I would let it sit for awhile to semi dry so some paint would end up stuck in the bristles, and then I would wash it out and let them dry.  I also sparingly added some paint to the handles of my wooden brushes.

GLUE: I added glue to the bristles of some of my brushes so they would stick together and pick up more globby paint – can you tell I really wanted them to look used? 🙂 The glue isn’t really necessary though, so if you don’t have it you can skip this!

Step 3: Allow to dry, and that’s it! Did this seem like the EASIEST tutorial ever? That’s because it IS! And it’s a fun and mindless activity you can do in between other things too, which makes it a great project for #quarantinelife! Happy (faux) vintage paint brush making, friends!

And here they are done!

You can always go back and add more “age” once you see how they dry as well.  I likely will do that on the bottom one you see above, since I want the bristles to look a little more used and beat up!

I eventually plan to hang these, but for now I’m enjoying styling them around the house!

Here is a close up, I think they look so great paired with old ironstone!

I hope you enjoyed today’s super quick and easy vintage paint brushes tutorial! If you decide to make these, let me know and tag me over on Instagram! Until next time, buds!

XO,

Ana

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