Our Version Of The Zinc Crate & Barrel Toy Soldiers
I saw these zinc toy soldiers from Crate and Barrel and loved the monochromatic look. With these as our inspiration, I created a similar painted nutcracker Christmas decoration for our mantle using unfinished wooden nutcrackers.
There are great sales going on now for holiday crafting. I found the first two options on the left from hobby lobby. The two unfinished wood nutcrackers on the right are from michaels.
Now you can paint them any color. Or you could stain them to look more like the Pottery Barn wooden nutcrackers.
I had this matte black spray paint on hand left over from some Halloween crafting. If I chose to do this again, I would probably snag some black chalk spray paint to get a more flat, chalky finish. These still ended up with a bit more sheen than I envisioned.
If you have some fine grit sand paper on hand I would suggest sanding it a little first before spray painting. One of the many things i learned by doing these projects first and hopefully save you the trouble. If you are staining them, I would definitely try to sand them first.
Spray them with a few thin coats of your spray paint. Let them dry completely.
Place those painted nutcracker beauties on your mantel and bask at their glory. For more Christmas decorating ideas check out these other fun Christmas DIYs.
