Distressed Furniture: Old-Looking Yet Chic

Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

Did you ever ask yourself what distressed furniture is? Simply defined, this is any kind of furniture that has bruises and nicks, or is cracked or crackled. Yet new furniture, these days, can also have a distressed appearance.

Distressed furniture should be made of solid wood and never with plywood or particle board. While there are many pieces in the market nowadays that may not be following this rule, once again, it pays to invest in your furniture.

If you’re looking into having the distressed look in your home, then you’re probably going to fall in love with shabby chic, cottage style or farmhouse.

There are plenty of furniture pieces in the market that were intentionally distressed. Take your pick from these beautiful options. Remember to look for solid furniture so that you will have them for a lifetime (perhaps you can even turn them into an heirloom).

If you have existing furniture that have been kept in the attic or basement for a long, long time, then why not bring them out and learn a few distressing techniques? A new piece could also be stained and sanded down to a distressed look.

Okay, let’s try to make your furniture look older. Of course, the first to dinge up would be those corners because of constant bumping. Begin, therefore, with a hammer and hit these corners and edges. You can also add nicks and gouges to the seat top.

You can also have the claw end of your hammer dragged along the surface of the furniture piece. This would cause scratches and scrapes which are common in old furniture. This is a lot easier to do with softer woods such as pine wood.

Distressed Furniture: The Painting Technique

Surprisingly, it is fairly simple to do the painting technique in distressing furniture. Your initial step is to find out which piece to work on and what the finished look would be. Using new furniture, you could paint two coats if you want to achieve the look of a distressed piece with some paint color showing underneath. This gives the illusion that the furniture was painted many times in the past.

Consider a brighter color for your base coat so that it will surely show up even as you paint over it. You can also have some bare areas revealing the wood. Do this by painting only with a single coat.

Tools and Materials

• Satin latex paint (base coat)
• Satin latex paint (top coat)
• In the absence of a satin latex paint, use wood stain
• Candle
• Painting tools
• Sandpaper
• Steel wool (medium grade)
• Tack cloth
• Polyurethane (optional material for finishing)

Steps

• Sand the furniture. If this piece was previously varnished or painted, then sand all of its surfaces.
• Wipe with a tack cloth after sanding.
• If you want the bare wood look, sand off areas that become distressed first such as the corners. Rub some candle wax on these areas to have some color show through.
• Apply the top coat.
• Paint over the piece’s base coat as well as the wax. As the paint dries, gently rub the steel wool over the waxed areas.
• Wipe with tack cloth once more.
• Apply a finish if you want.

Remember that the optimal temperature for paint application is at room temperature. This is also the best condition to allow the paint to dry. If it’s too humid or cold, then the paint takes a lot longer to dry.

With your newly-learned techniques, are you ready to create distressed furniture pieces for you and your family?

Tags: distressed furniture, distressing furniture, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings
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