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
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.
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.
That Painter Lady - TAWN
Here are a few great resources on (do it yourself) kitchen makeovers. Click on the pictures to read about each resource.
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Debra, thank you so much! The picture is exactly what I want too do. It that a distressed look or a antique look? Also, is there a video where I can watch this process being created? But, the white ish color on the picture is what I want. Thank you Debra and I look forward to hearing from you. I cannot wait to do this and I will send you pictures when I complete it.
I got a response in an email (above).
Hi Donna,
The look in the picture is a bit of both antiqued and distressed.
I don’t know of a video that shows this process, if I find one I’ll send you the link.
But… I think the process is layed out pretty well in the article.
Except for the color dabs… don’t know why Dawn put that in their???
It’s all the prep work and basic painting that will get you the best results.
Make sure you sand, or I’m going to use a sanding/sealer on my cabinets. This should remove most of those sanding steps. Yeah!!!
Lightly rub the edges of the raised edges of your cabinet doors with a candle. This will help when it comes time to “distress” the cabinet.
Then you have to get all your cabinet painted white. This is not the “distressed part”. You want the entire cabinet to look really nice and clean.
What I mean is… with this finish… the starting point is a nice fresh white painted cabinet. Do not do a sloppy job at this point.
Then let the entire thing “cure for at least a week… Really. Let it set up really good before you start “antiquing”
Let me know how it goes.
debra
Hi my cabinets are already painted a gloss white “oil base paint” Can I still use the above antiquing procedure and cover with a poly?
Hello Annette,
Since your cabinets are already painted, you will not be able to use the candle wax, unless you plan on painting the cabinets with another coat of white - which probably isn’t necessary.
You can still sand a little bit of the paint off still with sandpaper, as long as you plan on sealing the surface. You don’t want to leave any exposed raw wood.
So then, all you will need to do is antique with the dark stain and then seal.
Hope it works out for ya! Be sure to post some pictures on the forum!
I am reading this with interest as I am about to attempt to distress my kitchen cabinets as well. The only difference is this; my cabinets are about 40 years old; hand made by the man who built this house; so they are already distressed with pings and grooves; but they are varnished. I know I need to sand them; but can I just apply the cream colored paint and then sand to show the original wood underneath? And then seal after this step? Please let me know…Thanks, Nancy
Hi Nancy, because your cabinets are varnished, they will definitely need to be properly prepped first. You have to rough up the surface with sandpaper so that the cream colored paint will stick and not peel off later on.
I am wanting to do the same distressed look on my kitchen cabinets. My cabinets are a honey color. They don’t have any raised areas except for a small decorative groove on the fronts of the cabinets. Very ranch style. Can I do this with this style of cabinet? Do I use white or a cream colored paint to achieve the distressed look? Also, what do I do after painting the cabinets?
I have answered this question on the forum. Click Here to check it out.
i am preparing to distress my kitchen island, kithen chairs, and table legs. They all have different finishes on them. Do I need to do some special prep, I don’t want them all to look different in the end. Maybe a consistant primer coat on chairs and table legs to make them similar? Should the island be the same also??
I answered this question in the forum. Here is the link - http://thatpainterlady.com/forum/index.php?topic=151.0