To Glaze or Not to Gaze. . .

Despite the fact that we are called House of White, I like a little variation in my finishes.  White, after all, isn't really one color--it's a myriad of subtle shades, which don't always make a subtle statement!  So when painting our furniture and accessories, we choose from a half dozen of our favorite shades.  Sometimes I have a hard time deciding if a piece should be creamy white, or pale gray, or have a hint of blue. . . other times it's as though the chair or dresser is whispering "Make me blue!"--like the chairs I am working on right now.

But the indecision doesn't stop there.  Should I keep is a clean solid painted surface? Should I sand and distress it?  Should I antique and glaze it?  I have tried several antiquing glazes and after many not so great results, I found one I liked.  It was a simple glaze found at the craft store in "mushroom" that I added to a glazing medium.  But I ran out recently and instead of making a special trip to the craft store I picked up a different one at the hardware store since I was already there.  It is darker than the mushroom color, but for some things, I think I like it.

Take these wood candlesticks, for instance.  After some debate, we painted two cream (that were peach before!) and two pale blue (that were dark wood before).  And I quite like them as they are.

But I decided to glaze them and try out the new glaze.  They had some interesting details that would stand out more with the contrast.

But after I glazed them both, I decided that while I liked the cream ones, the blue ones were too contrasty.

What about you?  Do you have any favorite glazing/painting techniques?