Today I’m sharing my latest build with you.
It’s free and it’s pretty and I made it myself, 3 of my favorite things. 🙂
If you don’t happen to have a gigantic pile of scrap wood in your garage (actually, this is one of three piles) you might need to spend $20 or so.
I’m super excited about this project for several reasons:
1. It was free
2. I made it from scratch, as in this time I cut the wood this time and everything. All. by. myself.
3. I figured out how to get it to look like aged barn wood, which I happen to think is beautiful and also sort of hides my mistakes (of which there are plenty, mostly because I cut everything with the jigsaw, a.k.a the only saw I’m not scared of.)
I used this plan from Ana White, but I added an extra divider and turned it upside down.
Now on to how to get cheap pine to look like aged barn wood…
Step 1: Torch it. I used a charcoal grill lighter because I needed to be able to get into some tight spots. I guess you could just add streaks of black paint, but where’s the fun in that?
Step 2: Paint it. I made a wash of 3 parts gray acrylic paint, 1 part baby blue, and 4 parts water. Then I brushed it over the entire piece.
Step 3: Unpaint it. I used wet paper towels and rubbed off as much of the blue/gray as I could just as the paint was almost dry.
Step 4: Paint it again. I made another wash out of 1 part soft black (almost purple) and 1 part water. I rubbed that into the piece with more paper towels.
Just keep adding and taking off paint until you get the look you want. Here’s a close-up.
I wasn’t sure Hubby was going to be a big fan. He sort of hates when I take new stuff and try to make it look old and beat up. I happen to love it. But, actually, he came home and said, “Wow. That’s a really cool finish.” Winning.
Linking to:
Stories A to Z
that looks awesome! love that you built it! and the finish is nice and soft and rustic.
that looks awesome! love that you built it! and the finish is nice and soft and rustic.
that looks awesome! love that you built it! and the finish is nice and soft and rustic.
lol. Up until a couple weeks ago, I cut everything with a jigsaw, too. But I read the manual for the compound miter saw and used it, and let me tell you, it is amazing!
I love it! How smart of you to “torch it”! I scare my husband when I try to use the saw. 🙂
Wow! I never would have thought to torch the wood first. Awesome idea!! I’ve been recently using my hubby’s table saw, miter saw and router…oh.my.gosh!! so much fun!