Do you want to give a painted piece of furniture a well worn and aged look? Here is an easy technique for distressing a painted piece of furniture, door or just about anything. Are you interested in a distressed stained finish? Check out the two part series on Distressed wood finishing: How to make new look old (part 1).

The general technique is to paint the wood with a light color, preferably a slightly off white or light cream. Don’t use a high gloss paint. Use a low luster enamel paint. (more…)

This post is part two of the distressed wood finishing technique. Learn an easy to follow six step process to make newly created furniture look like it has been around for decades.

Step 3: Sealing the door

Apply a sanding sealer to the door. A vinyl or latex sealer can be used. Following the manufacture’s directions and allow ample drying time.

Step 4: Sanding

Sand the door smooth with 320 grit sand paper. Be careful not to sand through the sealer and sand off the stain. (more…)

When done right distressed wood finishing will result in a finished piece that people will think is decades old, when in fact it is a newly finished piece. At first it may seem like distressed finishing is too complicated or takes too long. Nothing could be further from the truth. The process is broken down into six straight forward steps.

This technique works well with solid wood furniture. However, I don’t recommend attempting to apply this technique to pieces made from plywood or any type of laminate pieces. The veneer is too thin and will most likely break off and really look bad. (more…)

There are several different types of chemical strippers available on the market that will remove paint, varnish, shellac, tongue oil and other finishes from wood.  The problem is determining which product is the right one for your task.  (more…)

I came across an interesting article on staining wood from WoodSmith magazine.  The article includes a link to downloadable pdf.  They mixed their own stain color by blending off of the shelf stains, the recipes are included in the pdf.  What caught my eye is that they did a two tone stain finish.  It looks really nice.

On all of the projects that I have stained and varnished, I always used a single stain color.  The color changes that the finished piece exhibited where from the grain and how the wood was cut.

I think that for my second daughter’s storage bed, I will use this technique.  The foot board and head boards are made of raised panels.  I will stain the raised panels a lighter shade than the rest of the bed. 

Now, I just need to convince my wife that this will look really nice.