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Pickled Barrel

Beautiful modern farmhouse decor and rustic charm that warms the heart. Modern fixer upper farmhouse decor and farmhouse DIY projects. Farmhouse decor, Rustic decor and DIY.

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How to Distress Wood for Planked Decor

January 2, 2018 by Amanda Leave a Comment

How to Distress Wood for Planked Decor| Distressed Wood, DIY Distressed Wood, DIY Home, DIY Rustic Home, Rustic Home Decor, Home Decor Hacks, #RusticHome #RusticHomeDecor #HomeDecor

 

Pickled Barrel is all about rustic looks, and that included distressed wood for sure. But do you have to scour your area for old wood to get the look you want? The answer is no, you don’t! You can achieve a perfectly distressed look for planked walls and other applications with new wood. Today’s post is going to show you how! {Hint, it’s really easy and uses a simple household ingredient!}.

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Believe it or not, the main ingredient you need for distressing new wood is some simple household vinegar. White vinegar, to be exact. You also need:

steel wood

Brillo pads

rags

spray bottle

wire brush

paste wax

work gloves

safety glasses

dust mask

 

The first step to age new wood is to mechanically distress it. If you’re looking for a weather beaten look, you can replicate that on new wood by something as simple as beating the wood with a chain. The chain produces nicks and scratches that are present on naturally aged wood.

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To achieve the appearance that comes from years of exposure to sun and weather, this is where vinegar comes in. A few hours before starting on the wood, fill a spray bottle halfway with white vinegar. Now take one steel wool pad and shred it up. Put the shreds into the spray bottle with the vinegar. Set the bottle outside in the sun for 3-4 hours. After it has sat in the sun, spray the vinegar onto the wood and let it dry. Repeat until you achieve nearly the shade you want. Try out a test piece before doing all the wood, and keep in mind that over time the wood will continue to age, so stop when the wood is just a little lighter than your desired hue.

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To achieve a darker gray look, first spray the wood with black tea, and then follow the steps outlined on the previous slide for the vinegar. Black tea adds tanins to the wood that will react with the vinegar to produce a darker aged hue. Finish off your project with a light coating of paste wax. To make nicks and scratches stand out even more, work a dark paste wax into them before finishing with light paste wax.

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Resource for this post:

DIY Network

Filed Under: DIY, Home Decor Tagged With: DIY, DIY home decor, Home Decor Hacks, Planked Home Decor, Planked Wall Decor, rustic home decor

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