A Thursday Tutorial: White Washing Furniture

Source provided here.

As you smart consumers may remember, we were trying to decide what to do with our newly acquired dresser. Now that the all the wedding frenzy is over, it’s back to normal for the gentleman friend and I. We have serious matters to get back to – like pruning our hedge bush, transplanting seedlings that quadrupled while we were away, using crazy power tools to screw our Ikea spice rack hacks into the washroom and lastly, picking the ‘look’ for the dresser.

It looks like we are going to go for the beat up, white washed antique look. Also really loved the light yellow features on Martha Stewart’s dresser (don’t know what I am talking about? Go here to see!).

Source provided here.

Before we rush out and buy any old thing that our local hardware store recommends, we decided to do a little groundwork about how to get our desired finished look. We are so friendly and nice that we decided to share all that we found – as some of you may find it useful as well!

This article talks about the products you will need, but provides scant details about WHAT to do with them!

Found some informal instructions here. This tutorial is pretty simple although it does leave a few things to your imagination. No stripping involved – she just pre-distressed the wood, primed her piece, distressed the wood again and then added some wax. Although I like the easiness level of the tutorial, it is not quite the look I am going for myself.

The lovely crowd over at Design*Sponge posted a white washing tutorial here. It is a great tutorial with step-by-step instructions and detailed materials list. The pictures are very helpful as well!

A blogger wrote all about how to do different techniques on your wood furniture here. She includes how-to’s for: stripping, prepping, priming, adding appliqués, painting, distressing, adding accent colours and waxing.

There is a funny tutorial written here in easy to understand language by a gal who painted a trunk, hated it and salvaged her DIY job by whitewashing it! Definitely sounds like something I would do!

Crazy simple instructions here.

And lastly, my favourite tutorial is here – mostly because I like how the finished product looks and her directions aren’t too complicated (she got her tutorial from Lori here).

Image from here.