antiquing?

After spotting this pic last year in 100 Ideas for Real Rooms (one of the BHG special interest pubs) I decided our living room really needed corbels to help visually separate it from our kitchen.

Jenny from the Little Green Notebook had blogged about these corbels from ebay and they were perfect. I managed to snatch them up for under $100.


They arrived covered in cobwebs along with some dead ladybugs and what looked like mouse poop? Lovely. But they're in excellent condition. The paint on them is cracked and old and looks to be lead. My mission this weekend is to soak them in that orange paint remover gel and refinish them.

I'm not sure whether I should go straight white and then sand the edges to give them an antique look or if I should paint them a darker base color, then white and then sand the edges. My contractor suggested using a crackle paint, but I'm not sure I love that idea.

Anyone have experience with antiquing? What grit sandpaper did you use? Did you do a darker color underneath the top coat? Did you use and like crackle paint? Inquiring minds want to know...