Image by hartlandmartin via Flickr

There seems to be a recent revival in faux aging objects…and not just walls.    I mean boxes, lamps, pots, etc.  And as usual the popular “aging” is verdigris.  That’s what happens to copper when it’s exposed to the elements over time.  Copper slowly dulls, then it turns a gray-green (with a hint of black in there, too) color.

Then it gets kinda chalky but the chalky color isn’t just white…it’s a pale turquoise color.  Which is when it’s called a “verdigris”.  When it rains on this aged copper the verdigris will run and create streaks down the copper.

If you have something copper and you want to speed up this process you can use some regular old household bleach.  Paint it right on the copper and leave it alone and you should have a nice turquoise patina in about 24 hours.

But what if what you have is WOOD…or resin…or pottery…or wrought-iron furniture?  And you want it to LOOK like it’s aged copper.  Easy!  You can do this.  First gather up your supplies.  Ready?  Here’s your list:

• Water-based paint in the following colors:

White
Matte Black
Dark Green
Turquoise Blue
Raw Umber

• Plaster powder (used for patching walls) or gypsum plaster (plaster of paris)

• Sea sponges – small to medium sizes work great

• Brushes – Artist brushes 1″ and 2″ and maybe a smaller one too…like 1/4″ or 1/2″

• Not necessary but could come in handy…a chalk bag and a stippling brush or a hake

Now for the “how to” part!

1. First get your sea sponges DAMP. Not soaking wet.  Well, you want to get them soaking  wet and then squeeze them all out so they’re just damp and not dripping.
2. Next – get some “throw away” plastic containers and make up your paint colors.  Make a dark green, a gray…like putty, a milky/pale turquoise blue-green and a dark turquoise.
3. Paint a base coat of white on your object.
4. Over the white paint a coat of the gray putty color. Some black, white and maybe a bit of that raw umber or dark green will be what you need to get that “putty” gray color.
5. Start with the dark green.  Use one of your sea sponges or a paint brush and dab it or pounce it on to your object.  Blend it in to the gray but not completely.
6. While the green is still wet start dabbing on the dark turquoise color.  Blending the two colors.
7. Now you want to use the pale milky turquoise color to lighten up some of the areas.  You can do this by using a dry brush and drag it over the raised area.  This will create some highlights.
8. A good way to add to your “aged” look is to spatter some paint on it.  I LOVE a spatter brush tool for this but you can use a toothbrush or just a fairly stiff artists brush will do.   Use your raw umber or dark green or black here.
9. Now to give it that chalky look.  You can use the chalk bag and pounce on the dry spackle powder or you can dip your stipple brush or hake in the powder and “dust it” on the surface.  I’ve also just taken it in my hand and sprinkled it on…making it heavier in some areas and less so in others.

STOP!

There are two schools of thought here.  Before step 9 if you want to get that rained on look you can water down the white and load it on your sponge and then dab it on the top edges and let it run down the sides.  Or you can brush it on to create the “runs” down the sides where you want them.  OR..you can do step 9 and then take a sponge with water in it and let it run down from the top edges over the chalky stuff.

ALSO…if you want to seal the verdigris you have to do it before the “chalk” step and then apply the chalk immediately!!!  And you don’t want to seal it with a gloss coat.  You want to use matte.

This finish isn’t difficult to simulate and it’s really fun to do.  I love throwing the plaster dust on the surface.  It’s a step that is messy…or can be…but will make you giggle.  Stress buster!  Lol!

You can do this same finish but use browns, brown iron oxide, terra cotta, yellows, etc…for a faux rusty look.  Same thing…same process.

And for those of you wanting the easy way out …there’s a kit!  LOL!    It might be easier but it isn’t as fun…  But…here you go:

Rustoleum Patina Paint Kit

This kit, by Rustoleum is a two step process.  It doesn’t have that “chalky” finish to it but maybe you could still do that while the paint is wet.  ??  I’d try it…but I’m daring like that.  Lol!

In this picture the color of the finish is a bit more green than in the picture I saw at the store.  The one I saw was more of that turquoise blue/green color.  Much better!! 

And as you can see from the pictures on this package people are using it to create a faux verdigris finish on lots of things.  You’re only limited by your own imagination.

Candlesticks, fireplace screens, book ends…  keep going!!

So what are YOU going to give a good patina too?

Image by vivido via Flickr

Have you ever had to buy a new piece of furniture to replace something you already had and the new piece just sticks out like a sore thumb?  It looks like the stuff you’ve had and loved for years but it’s “new” and “shiny” and just doesn’t fit in?

How do you make it look like it’s been loved over the years, too?  Distressing furniture is a great way to get that “new” off of a piece of furniture.  Sometimes you NEED a new book case but you want it to look like you’ve had it a while and make it fit in with the pieces you already have.  Distressing is a good way to do that…and pretty therapeutic, too!

You can use just about anything for distressing furniture.  Stain, screws, hammer, chains, nails, keys, etc. all work well as part of your arsenal.  Oh!  And crackle paint is a good one to have up your sleeve, too.  Here’s a couple of ideas for you to use when you need to “old” up a new piece of furniture.

The Simple Ways to Distress Your Furniture

There are lots of easy ways to make your furniture look like it’s been around a while.  You need a little arsenal of tools to do this.  A hammer, some sand paper (different grits works best), a thin nail (wire nails work well), a wire brush, a bolt, etc.

The obvious place furniture first becomes “distressed” is any of those raised areas.  That’s where things bang in to it or it dings in to something when you’ve opened it.  You can use your different grits of sand paper here to help a void creating a uniform pattern.  Nothing screams “fake” like it all being the same!    Rub some here and some there…more where your hand would naturally rub on the furniture.

Next you get to “beat” your furniture!  This is the therapeutic part!    Use all the things you’ve gathered to create a wear and tear effect.  Hit it at an angle with a chain.  You can even create faux wormholes with the thin nail or you can use a small drill bit and drill them in…RANDOMLY…not uniformly.  It’ll look like you just drilled holes in if you do that.

Look at REAL wormholes first to get and idea of how they look & just copy that…somewhat.  You can create scratches and deeper “grooves” in the wood surface using the wire brush.  Then put some wormholes in the scratches and grooves.

Time to take the hammer to it and hit your furniture here and there…especially on edges that would normally get dinged up.  Don’t JUST do the edges but remember to hit them since that’s where they’d naturally occur.

Now it’s time for the finishing touches.  Clean your furniture with a tack cloth and then apply some wood stain or Bri-Wax over the areas you just distressed.  I really think Bri-Wax is the best for this type of finish.  And I LOVE it for all kinds of things!!  Anyway…Make sure you rub it in good in all those holes and marks. Wipe off any extra stain but make sure you also “leave” a little extra in the dents and grooves and holes…for that “old distressed” look.

If you use wood stain and not Bri-Wax, let the stain dry and then apply a good sealer over your furniture.  I like MinWax Polycrylic because I can get it in different sheens.  Flat/matte all the way up to glossy!  This coat will protect your fun finish you just created.

Using Wax and Paint to Distress Your Furniture

You can use wax – in a multitude of forms – to distress your furniture and it’s very easy to do!  You just need wax!  And by wax I mean an old candle or even some of those broken crayons from your child’s crayon box.  This is also the same way you’d create that rubbed or worn finish to a piece of furniture.

Of course we all know the key to any project is – PREP WORK!  So you need sand your furniture first, clean it off, then you paint your furniture with a dark (or light – depending on the top coat) color paint. I’ve used a nice chocolate brown before with a cream top coat.  But if your top coat is going to be dark…like BLACK…you want to use something lighter underneath.

I’ve even used various colors in my base coat so different areas show different colors.  That gives me the look of ages showing through.  Like the furniture was first painted yellow then blue then red…and those colors are showing through at different rates of “wear and tear”.

After your “base coat” has dried you just need to take the candle and rub it along the areas you want to show through.  For that worn “distressed” lovingly used look you’d want to rub the edges and some of the raised areas of the furniture since that’s where your furniture would have been “worn”  over time.  Now you can paint the entire surface area with a top coat of paint.  This layer won’t stick to any area that you rubbed with wax.

After your paint is dry, take a sponge or a rag and rub some wood stain (or BriWax!) over the furniture and make sure you let it get in to all those cracks and crevices.  Don’t give it a nice “even” finish.  That won’t look “old”.   Give it an uneven coat of stain and then let it dry.

Once your stain dries it’s time to get rid of that wax…if you want.  You don’t have to…I’ve always just left it there, but I use a “clear” or white wax candle.   If you want to get the wax off, it’s actually easy.   You can lay down some paper towels then some old newspaper and then cover the newspaper with a paper towel (this one keeps your iron clean) and simply iron the areas that you rubbed the wax on.  The wax melts and is absorbed by the newspaper.  TA-DA!

Now you have a distressed piece of furniture that looks old and loved and is ready to be used.    If it still looks toooo new to you try rubbing over the whole piece with a piece of steel wool, then clean it off and paint over the whole thing with a nice flat coat of Minwax’s Polycrylic.

To read about doing this process in your kitchen you can click here –>Distressed Kitchen Cabinets

Now go get those chains and nuts and bolts and stuff and have some fun!!

P.S.  Check this out!  I found this great book that has all kinds of wonderful tips and ideas about distressing furniture in it for you.  It talks about crackling, distressing and antiquing your furniture or your found objects! 

Restyling Junk

And for more about “Hand Rubbed Finishes” for your furniture (or cabinets) you can click here–> How To Create Hand Rubbed Paint Finish

This great question from Dave & Donna – newsletter subscribers – I am happy to share the limelight with Tawn – THAT Painter Lady part 2! 

I am wanting to get a distressed look on the center isle in my kitchen. It is real wood and was stained in a medium to dark finish when we built the home.

I want it to be a different color from my cabinets and thought of a distressed or old world look in a lighter color on top of the already stained wood. Can this be accomplished?

This is my first time doing this particular faux process. I assume there will be sanding involved. I just did not know if this is something I should try myself or if I should hire it out. ~Dave & Donna

Hi Donna & Dave-

What a great idea and fun, too!  Easy to do as well.

If you want your center isle in your kitchen to look like it is a different piece of furniture, older, well loved, with many transformations, then here are a few steps for you to follow:

1.  Sand – lightly sand the isle (this scuffs the surface so that the paint will have something to adhere to without chipping off later on).

2.  Add Dabs of Color – paint a dab of turquoise here and some hot pink/red there and some bright sunny yellow over there.  You don’t have to use different colors you can paint it all with just one color.  I used different colors to give my piece a deeper faux “history”.    When it used to be painted turquoise and once was painted red or when it was yellow.  Like it has a longer history.  I’ve also painted it just one solid color as the base and that works, too.

3.  Candle Wax Rub – go back over the dabs of color with a rub of wax. Take a candle (a taper or emergency candle works well – white – no color) and rub it on a portion of the color you painted and some on the edge of the dark stain.

4.  Paint – you can paint over the entire thing with a creamy ivory color (2 coats).

5.  Distress – when the paint dries take your sand paper and lightly run it over the areas you know you rubbed on the candle wax. It will take off the paint exposing the color(s) underneath (your dab of turquoise here and pink there and avocado green there and yellow here).  Rub the sandpaper along some of the edges exposing the darker stain underneath and even go deeper here and there exposing just the wood.

6.  Antique – to age the piece I would take a light stain or brown paint watered down and rub it all over the piece following the grain of the wood.  Then seal it with Polycrylic Satin.

Hope this helps!

THAT Painter Lady (well…the other one!)

Here are a few great resources on (do it yourself) distressed finishes.  Click on the pictures to read about each resource.

Period Finishes & Effects

50 Ways to Paint Furniture: The Easy, Step-by-Step Way to Decorator Looks

The Art of the Painted Finish for Furniture & Decoration: Antiquing, Lacquering, Gilding & The Great Impersonators

One stroke furniture accents: 9 painted furniture pieces coordinated with wallpaper

Quick update – we’ve been sharing a ton of ideas about Distressed Cabinet Doors:

Charlene shared a picture of her butlers pantry cabinets. The idea of distressing kitchen cabinets can be a very subtle process as she shows here:

Here is a picture of a portion of my butlers pantry that I did somewhat the same thing but just not quite as
Distressed. Hope you don’t mind me sharing.

THAT Painter Lady loves it when you share! And… the cabinet distressing is gorgeous.

Martha asked a question (several questions) about “refinishing her bedroom furniture. She wants to know how to create a style like Pottery Barn hand rubbed paint finish.

Debra:

I have a four poster bed (w/matching vanity and night stands) they are either maple or maybe mahogany. Anyway…I want to do something totally different with them.

For the four poster bed, I think I’m going to paint it white and then use this stuff (I’ve used it before on a hutch that was already painted white and it turned out awesome) Its Winston Oil Artist paint burnt umber I think is the color). Its real thick, almost like a wax or stain. You put just a really small amount on a staining pad and then spray the pad w/a little mineral spirits and rub on furniture. A decorator told a friend of mine about this and my friend has done cabinets and even her fireplace mantel (all started white). I even did it on my walls where I did the brick breakout that I got from your video.

My problem/question is….since the bed is stained….what is the best way to strip it. I bought some liquid stripper and tried that a little last night…..still takes a lot of “elbow grease” and then I’m left with a sticky residue I’m going to have to sand off anyway. My problem is I always hate the “prep” work.

Do I have to completely strip it? Or can I just use an oil base primer before painting it.

Now, with the night stands, I don’t know what I want to do. I was thinking about doing something different than what I’m doing with the bed but have no idea what. So any suggestions you can make will be greatly appreciated. I really like Pottery Barn’s “rubbed paint” they have on some of their furniture …..they have different colors….red, sage, blue etc BUT I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DO THAT? HELP?

Do you have any paint techniques or anything you can suggest? Thank you so much for your input, looking forward to hearing back from you.

Thanks

Martha

Great Question Martha!

The idea that you got from the decorator to use the oil paint and mineral spirits is great! I use Dark Brown Briwax Original Formula for a similar result. I love this stuff!

It’s soft and easy to apply and rub in. It leaves a beautiful soft hand rubbed looking finish.

I also have used it on some furniture that I wanted to “darken” to match with other furniture in the room. I have a lot of rustic pine furniture that I want to look more like walnut… so I slap on this rubbed finish.

I like it because it wears off eventually in “high use” places. This leaves an antique “used” look to my furniture – which is exactly the look I want. :0)

The question about the prep work… we all hate that prep stage don’t we?

I admit that I usually save stripping as a last resort. The idea of just priming is a better option. There is a product called Bulls Eye SealCoat Sanding Sealer.

This works great and saves us all a ton of aggravation.

Universal sanding sealer seals all types of wood surfaces including hardwoods such as mahogany, walnut, birch, poplar, cherry, etc.

Also recommended for interior woodwork, including paneling, molding, trim, windows, doors, cabinets, furniture, and wood toys.

Now that we have all that sorted out… what about that rubbed paint finish you want to try?

This is a Pottery Barn Armoire with a blue hand rubbed (look) paint finish. This is the type of distressed paint finish that Martha can’t figure out how to replicate.

The process I’m going to describe can be used on stained wood or painted wood.

If you want a second paint color to show through the “rubbed” areas then the wood must be painted that color.

For instance: If you wanted a bit of red paint peeking out here and there than you have to get the red paint color on first.

The trick is – You Don’t have to paint the entire piece red first. Really!

It’s a step that isn’t necessary… and I’ll tell you how to do it all.

• Step 1 – Prepare the furniture for paint! If it has a sealer on it already – use the sanding primer as shown above.

• Step 2 – Paint the “show through colors” on to the furniture. If you just want a “stain” color showing through (the blue cabinet would be an example) skip this step.

• All the “edges” and areas that would get normal wear and tear on an antique need the “show through” color painted on. Don’t glob the paint on… you do not want globs of paint to sand down. A nice thin coat of contrasting color is enough.
• Paint this color on with a slap/dash feel.
• Let this paint dry.
• If the paint feels raised to the touch – sand lightly.

• Step 3 – Apply Candle Wax and/or Vaseline to the painted edges.
  
  • This is what will make it easy to sand down the distressed areas!
  • I actually use both. Some candle wax (use a white candle) and some areas get Vaseline rubbed on.
  • I like the candle wax for “edges” and Vaseline if I want to have a “wider” area showing through – like around the handles or at the toe kick area (base of the cabinet where it sits on the floor).
  • I have also used a “crackle” product on areas that I want to have a bit of “chippy paint” look.
  • The candle wax should be rubbed on “thick” or “heavy”. You should see the candle leaving a wax residue or shavings on your project (wipe these off before moving on to the next step).

• Step 4 – Apply the paint color. Remember to choose a color that is a “bit” brighter than you want your resulting color to be. The staining wax that will be applied over the top will cut the brightness.
  • The paint has to be dabbed a bit over the Vaseline or you take a chance of “painting” it off. You will see a slight raised area where the candle wax or Vaseline is located.
  • The paint color should have more than one coat to ensure a long lasting paint finish. Allow paint to dry at least 2 hours between coats.
  • Allow the entire painted cabinet to dry overnight.

• Step 5 – Getting the rubbed painted look. Now it’s time for the magic!

• • Using an old dish cloth or other rough cloth start rubbing the edges of the cabinet and the areas you put the candle wax or Vaseline.
  • I use a cloth and “extra” elbow grease instead of sandpaper for most of the project. Once all the edges have been exposed (painted or stained) you can finish off with a light sanding to blend the exposed edges.
  • If you used “crackle products” don’t sand these areas… You should see the paint cracked here.

• Step 6 – Apply the Stain or BriWax to age your cabinets.
  • The Bri-Wax is easier to work with – but stain gives a nice finished top coat.
  • The product is wiped on and wiped off until you get the distressed look you want.
  • The dark color will collect on the exposed areas that the candle wax left behind.
  • If you applied some “crackling product” to various areas… the stain/BriWax will collect and accent the cracks on the furniture.
• Step 7 – Seal The Deal!
  • I don’t always seal the surface of distressed furniture. I like the way it continues to distress…
  • If you want to seal the surface a light coat of spray satin sealer will be the best choice.

Close up of sanding off corners and edges.

Good Luck Martha! And Have Fun….

Debra ~ THAT Painter Lady