How to distress wood and make furniture look old

You really do not have to wait around decades for the perfect rustic piece of furniture if you know how to distress wood. Crafting a homey truly feel in interiors can be carried out with distressed wood furniture since it offers lived-in ease and comfort vibes to an if not cold place. Older wooden has a way of softening a place and including a nostalgic contact to any space.

However, if your furnishings still has that straight-out-the-keep glow, and you’re wanting to know how to make wood search outdated, we’ve received various approaches to distress wooden and give it a fantastically worn finish— and you do not have to hold out several years to get it. As soon as you find out these distressing tactics, you can make more than pristine parts into some thing with character. Learn how to distress wood with a Do-it-yourself job to age a piece of furniture in just a number of days.

Mechanical Strategies to Distress Wooden

When it comes to aged wood, a several dents and dings are a fantastic issue. Use these flaws to mimic yrs of wear-and-tear just before ending with a stain. To start off, you’ll will need:

Hammer
Metallic chain
Nails
Wood gouge
Awl
Drill
Wire brush drill attachment
Sandpaper

1. Assault the wood

Use applications and other objects to distress wood. Try out hitting it with a hammer, mallet, or steel chain to make tiny divots. A wooden gouge could be useful to insert a couple nicks in this article and there. You can also press the facet of a significant screw into the wooden or hammer the side of an axe to create a lengthy scratch. Hammering a sock or cloth bag filled with nails will build an irregular sample. Test the procedures on a piece of scrap wood right before you begin beating up your furniture—you can often incorporate more destruction, but the moment you get begun, it is really hard to eliminate dents.

2. Create aged wood texture

A wire brush attachment will remove delicate areas of wooden and enable the grain shine. Fit the attachment into the drill and operate the bristles again and forth over the wooden, heading with the grain. Repeat until finally the wooden is textured. Finish by flippantly sanding the surface with a wonderful-grit sandpaper.

3. Incorporate insect harm

Wormholes are a trademark of reclaimed wooden. To develop the look—minus the bugs—drive an axe into the wood, producing a random sample. You can also drill screws by a two-by-four and use it to develop tiny holes in your piece.

4. Staining strategy 1: Use vinegar and tea to distress wooden

After your wood is sufficiently beat up, vinegar and black tea is a basic way to stain the wooden and give a new piece of household furniture that distressed glimpse. For this Do it yourself challenge you’ll want:

White vinegar
Steel wool
Glass jars
Paintbrush
Black tea
Sizzling or room temperature drinking water
Sandpaper
Paste wax or polyurethane
Plastic gloves
Rags

Action 1: Make the vinegar remedy

Commence by pouring your vinegar into a glass jar, and fill it about midway. Shred the steel wool and add it to the jar. Then, permit the steel wool and vinegar sit in the jar uncovered for at least 24 several hours. If you permit it sit for for a longer period, it will make a darker look (which is wonderful if it is your choice) just really do not enable rust to form, or you will end up with an orange stain. The steel wool will dissolve in the vinegar just after about a working day.

Step 2: Get rid of old end

If your wooden area is currently painted or completed, you will will need to take out the initial end using sandpaper, in any other case, the answer won’t adhere to the wood. You can do this even though waiting for your vinegar solution to finish and it is uncomplicated to understand how to refinish a desk or another piece of furnishings. To clear away the coat of paint, get started with an 80-grit sandpaper, sanding together the grain of the wooden. As the top layers of paint arrive off, shift to a medium-grit sandpaper (150 grit functions effectively) and end with a great 220-grit sandpaper.

Phase 3: Blend the tea

When your vinegar resolution is prepared, combine warm drinking water and tea in a further glass jar. Once you utilize both mixtures to a piece of wooden, the tannins in the tea will respond with the steel-wool-and-vinegar solution to develop a darker end.

Move 4: Paint on the tea

Use the paintbrush, rag, or dry brush to implement the tea to the wood. Let the tea to dry, and then utilize the vinegar answer to the wood. The ageing process will carry on as it dries, so you may perhaps want to wait around right before making use of a second coat of vinegar.