How To Color Wash Wood Furniture
Sam Lutz • April 5, 2016
Color washing is a technique that many people use on wooden furniture to achieve a faded, almost vintage effect. Color washes allow the wood grain to appear through the paint, adding a level of depth and visual interest to each piece. Wood painted with color wash looks great in shabby chic decor and in homes with vintage or antique furniture. Color washing allows you to decide which level of transparency
works best for your furniture, so that each piece you paint will meet your needs and match with your tastes. Color washing is easy to do at home, so many people enjoy taking this on as a weekend project.
Materials
- Tarps
- Tack cloth or microfiber cloth
- Buckets or plastic containers
- Strips of test wood
- Latex paint
- Fine grain sand paper
- Paint brushes
- Polyurethane
Procedure
- Set out tarps in the area where you'll be doing the painting.
- Set up the piece of furniture on the tarp.
- Clean off the piece of furniture using tack cloth. If necessary, wash the furniture with warm soapy water, then dry the furniture with a dry microfiber cloth.
- Use an empty plastic container to mix the combination of paint and water that achieves the effect you desire. For more paint and less wood, use two parts paint and one part water. To see more wood and less paint, mix two parts water with one part paint.
- Paint the wood with the paint wash. This can be done by either using a paint brush to paint the wood, or by dipping the wood into a bucket filled with paint wash. The latter method achieves a smoother and more uniform finish, but also requires a bucket that can fit around each piece of the furniture as it's painted.
- Allow the furniture to dry on the tarp.
- Apply more color wash as desired, repeating steps five and six.
- Lightly sand the surface of the furniture.
- Use the tack cloth or microfiber cloth to wipe away any saw dust on the furniture.
- Paint the furniture with a layer of clear polyurethane to protect the painted finish and the wood beneath.
- Leave the furniture to dry on the tarp once more.
Check Out These Resources
If you’re thinking about doing a color washing project, we encourage you to take a look at these online resources for inspiration and advice.
Stop By Ace Paint for All Your Furniture Finishing Needs
At Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture
we have everything you need to finish your color washing project, from tarps to paintbrushes to latex paint. We've even got the unfinished furniture
for you to paint! Stop by today and we'll even offer our free friendly advice to help you through your project with the best results.
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