Creating distressed white cabinets in your home can take years of wear, or you can cheat a little and accelerate process with a special paint. Crackle medium or crackle paint is a thick clear paint used as a base coat which caused cracks to appear in fresh paint. You can use this effect to see your white cabinets saddened almost immediately after painting.
Purchase of two different shades of white latex paint for your distressed white cabinets. These colors should look noticeably different, so choose a bright white color and off-white, like ivory or cream. Remove hardware, such as drawer pulls or knobs, your cabinets with a screwdriver. You do not have to remove hinges of cupboards. Sand entire exterior of each cabinet – including doors
Apply a white alcohol-based primer on outside of cabinet with a paint roller or brush. This will bond paint to help cabinets and to prevent chipping. Paint cabinets with off-white latex paint. This is color shine through worn spots on cabinets. Apply a thick layer of crackle medium to a cabinet with a large brush. Wait until crackle medium looks shiny, indicating that it is dry and ready to be painted.
Paint over crackle medium with aid of bright white latex paint and a large brush. Paint in one direction in order to guarantee best results. Wait until paint to dry and begin to crackle and distressed white cabinets look. Repeat steps 6 through 8 until all of cabinets are finished. Apply a layer of clear water-based polyurethane to dry painted cabinets with a paint roller. This will seal and protect paint. Set hardware for cabinets in polyurethane is dry.