Making New Wood look a little older~ Weathered Wood Technique

I love the look of weathered and love to use reclaimed wood. I don't always have the perfect piece of old wood laying around when I need it.  I added a little age to a new pine board before painting it with JOY!

Step 1:

* Sand your wood surface well and wipe off dust

* I mixed up brown milk paint as a stain~ 3 parts water and 1 part milk paint powder- I used  a combination of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in Curio and Homestead House's Milk Paint in Algonquin. It gave the board a nice grayish brown stain. 

* Do not wipe any off. Just let it sit on wood, until dry to touch. ( I sped up the drying with my heat gun)

To get a more distressed, old, worn look on new wood, use any sort of random tools to dent, pound, and  bang up the board.  I used a hammer and a small metal piece that I found.  Do this vary randomly.  Different types of grooves and dents can be made by using different tools and objects. I used the back of the hammer and the front part of the hammer to bang up the wood a bit, so it didn't look so 'perfect'.

Step 2: 

* Use a white paint and a piece of foam or a sponge and lightly brush a dry coat of paint on the top of the stained board.

I used a nice white mineral paint by Pure Earth in the Color White Jade.  I like to use a piece of foam or a sponge for more control but a foam brush would work too.  

* You don't want the paint to cover the wood completely at all. You are mainly just using it for it's white color and matte finish, to achieve a layered, weathered, gray look for the end product.

Step 3:

* Use flat gray paint in any shade you choose. I used Pure Earth in a color called Meteorite~ a light gray. 

* Use a paintbrush, dip the end into the paint, and then wipe most of it off on either the side of the can, or a rag of some sort. Then use whatever leftover paint is on the brush, to dry-brush over the white coat.

Dry Brushing:  Lightly whisk your brush over the surface of the boards. Do not paint and cover the entire surface.  With this process the goal is to create the look of different layers on the boards... as if the wood has been weathered or  out in the elements for a few years, and repainted a couple of times over time. 

*  I applied 2 coats of this gray to deepen the color a little. It is ok if the paint is a little heavier in some places.  Just be sure to let the paint dry between the coats.  

Step 4:

* Using more of the  flat gray paint, add a small amount of black craft paint to the mix. Stir it around a little to deepen the color, but leave a little of the black paint around the edges, so that when you dab your paintbrush in, you'll get subtle variations of dark and light on the ends of the bristles.

* Using the same technique, of dabbing your brush into the paint, and then wiping most of the excess paint off, dry-brush over the entire surface again. Periodically reloading your brush with more of your gray and black mixture.

* If you want more dramatic black or darker gray streaks on your wood, just pour a little more black craft paint into the mix, until you get your desired shade.

After you've got your desired barn wood look, sand down your surface very lightly to get rid of any rough paint splatters or bits that may have been left behind. This should be so light that there shouldn't really even be any dust coming off your table.

The last step is to apply another coat of your stain to the top of your wood. You can do a full coat of the stain or just use the dry-brush technique again and ran the stain lightly over the whole surface. Adding the stain to the top of the mostly dry  paint will almost give the surface a greenish-gray tint. Helping add to that worn look that you're going for.

I did a full stain on the top for this project to give a more solid background for my JOY sign.  The stain did cover quite a bit of the cool detail so next time on a different project  I will  do the dry-brush technique.