People Are Using Cinnamon to Create Faux Rust On DIY Projects (2024)

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It turns out, not only is cinnamon good for spicing up your favorite recipes and filling your home with the smell of Christmas, but it's also apparently an effective hack for DIYing a faux rust finish.

That's right: People are using everyone's favorite fall flavor to make all kinds of things look rustic. In a recent Hometalk video that's been shared nearly 2 million times on Facebook, crafter Katie Tennis of Junque 2 Jewels sprinkles the reddish-brown stuff over letters, blends with acrylic paint, and voila! A seemingly weathered sign fit for a farmhouse in the country.

Pati Robins of Style Squeeze did something similar with the edges of these papier-mache letters. To make them look like old galvanized metal, she suggests starting with a metallic base coat, such as silver spray paint and adding some dark paint here and there. While the dark paint is still wet, sprinkle with ground cinnamon and dab with a paintbrush. If desired, seal with matte lacquer spray.

But not everybody is sold on the hack, with some commenters calling the project a "waste of cinnamon," saying it looks "dirty," and worrying about bugs, mold, and the lingering scent of cinnamon. While beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder, pests shouldn't be an issue—the spice is actually said to be a natural insect repellent. And for what it's worth, Robins says her cinnamon rust project lost its warm, spicy fragrance as soon as it was dry (but personally, we wouldn't mind it if the aroma stuck around).

Of course, there are other ways to get the aged look that don't involve breaking into your spice drawer. Some people swear by Coastal Candy, an all-natural paint additive that achieves a salt air-worn texture. The blogger behind Where the Smiles Have Been made cute state-shaped ornaments cut from cereal boxes look like rusted metal with a combination of reactive metallic iron paint and rust activator.

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A fourth technique (by The V Spot) uses another cheap ingredient: salt!

(h/t: Hometalk)