DIY: Faux Agate

I have been promising a tutorial forever now.
This is the top of an IKEA Lack table I am currently "agating"...
I still haven't hit up my entry wall with the giant agate  for two reasons here:

1- Been crushed for time lately, sorry it a lame excuse. 

2- The Mr. has recently given me carte blanche to do whatever ever the hell I wanted to with our bathroom since he decided we are gutting it in a year.  

I know most of you would say why bother doing anything if you are ripping it out.  

I have a blog to run and I need shit to paint so this is one huge "blank canvas" score for me 
(and lets not forget I get bored with stuff FAST, so the reno will be perfect timing for change.) 
So agate in the bath, ok? 
Sorry,  I still promise to do one of the other techniques we discussed in the entry.

OK, so now that that is cleared up, on to this:

You have a couple ways to get this look.
You can either go BIG (like the table above from the Furniture Bank Event- lets call it FB),
which I learned is challenging since paint dries fast,
or take it in small doses like the first picture (Ikea Lack table- IKL) that breaks things into 4 pieces.
I recommend the bite sized IKL piece approach to get started.
I made you all SPECIAL video
(who-hoo so exciting, actually I'm all business so not really)
 that shows how to make the IKL agate happen:

 As far as BIG agate directions:
While painting the FB table my hands got super covered in paint
and I had my 5 year old take pictures. Bad idea.
 They are mostly blurry and look like 5 year took them. Seriously.
So watch the video if you plan on doing this, or check out the following steps for a half-assed approach. your choice.
What you'll need:
-Something to "agate", painted in a satin or semigloss base coat.  *paint it the lightest color in the agate, I did white. -Latex glaze mixed two parts to one part latex paint *mix it with darkest color in agate, I did Navy Blue -gloves to keep that mani fresh! -a softening brush -torn pieces of cardboard -various sized artist brushes -images or pieces of agate -black and white artist colors to darken or light areas -cup of water and a rag for wiping up your mistakes -paint brush to apply glaze
 Its go time!  These directions are for doing BIG agate, but trust me... watch the video for smaller sections.  I learned the hard way here and if I just brushed the entire table top out with glaze and took it off with cardboard it would have been much faster and I wouldn't have made so many mistakes.
-So first I brushed out a few base lines to follow, and filled in a darker center area...
 I sponged the dark area to lighten and give texture:
 added another line around the center
(I know what all you with dirty minds are all thinking...)
 and kept painting on lines on varying colors of blue/black:
 once I got enough of a base down I let it dry:
and then I covered the whole thing with glaze: (Here is where the 5 year old steps in and I lost a few shots.)
 Basically what you missed was me dragging a clean dry paintbrush through the glaze, following the base lines to get a strie-looking texture going on in between.  It would have looked much cooler if I used strips of cardboard like in the video. I have no good pictures from here on out, but I can tell you I messed with it a ton and added more glaze to darken it.
and I repeated this for all four sides:

I could have gotten a very similar look by covering it all in glaze
 and using big chunks of cardboard to wipe off.
Now go watch the video to see the right way to do it.
I do have a giveaway...
I am giving up this here IKEA Lack Table that I painted in the video
(as nice as it goes with my navy & white kitchen, I have no room for it):

Just leave a comment with your name, and winner will be announced this Friday (11/0/2012).
If you have any questions or need help with this technique, just give me a shout!
xo
Danika