How to Give Yourself A Shabby Chic Antique Manicure

Are you ready for a nail DIY? This project explains how you can layer fabric paint over nail polish to achieve something akin to those “antique” and “distressed” paint effects that are so popular on home-decorating programs. (You know the ones where some hyperactive blonde is always convinced that what this suburban kitchen needs is more purple-and-gold crackle spraypaint.) I first noticed that fabric paint not only plays well with manicures, but gives this kind of layered, sanded-off effect when I was working on a t-shirt DIY with the designer Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin. Call it shabby chic nails.

(That project is archived here.) We were applying fabric paint to a t-shirt using a stencil and a sponge, and — as is my wont — I was not terribly careful about keeping the paint off my fingers. I figured I could just rinse it off later. But when I went to wash my hands, a funny thing happened. The paint came off my skin without any trouble, but it stuck fast to my (painted) nails. I could scrape it off with a fingernail, and repeated scrubbing lightened the paint in places, but fundamentally the paint and the manicure had entered into some kind of happy, enduring bond. Because this happened by accident, the white paint was a little uneven — more got on my thumbs than on my pinkie nails, for example — but I knew if it lasted I could replicate it intentionally. The effect proved to last as long as the manicure — actually, because it helped cover up the chips and nail regrowth in what was already a week-old nail job, it technically extended the manicure’s life, giving me another week or so of shabby-chic nails. It’s a little like one of those “crackle” top coats, only with transparency — and the pleasing contrast of the matte paint and the glossy nail polish — in play. Here’s how you can achieve the effect.

You will need, from left: a makeup sponge (optional), a nail polish, a bottle of fabric paint in a contrasting color, a base coat, and a top coat (Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri is the best).

The textile paint that I was using when I first noticed this effect was Createx Airbrush Colors. It actually proved a little more durable than the Jacquard Textile Color paint I used this time around, for an experiment.