Quick Tips for Distressing Home Furnishings

Distressing? As in a cause for concern?

Well that depends...

The technique designers use to give new furniture an old time look and feel is called "distressing." Its good fun for furniture lovers. Not so much for furniture.

Home furnishings don't age into antique perfection. They age into boring out-of-date relics. You could try to renovate them young again, but why not go even older? Nick, scrape, cut, wax and sand them. Distress them in the name of rustic beauty.

Three Easy Ways to Distress Furniture:

• Paint your furniture (wood or metal) with one color of latex paint and then rub wax on the areas where natural wear and tear would occur. Paint again with a different color and scrub the paint from the waxed areas allowing the bottom coat to show through.
• Get your hands on gears and a bike chain. Mark the surface of the wood with the teeth of the gears and thrash the wood with the chain to add random markings. Then apply a stain that will be absorbed most heavily by the marred wood while yellowing the remaining areas slightly.
• Rough up the surface of painted furniture with sandpaper. Add specks of stain that look like embedded dirt or paint droplets by flicking a lightly dipped paintbrush. Finish with a clear topcoat to preserve your new/old finish.

Important Note: Do not use these techniques on any pieces you buy from Back at the Ranch. Our handcrafted home furnishing have already been distressed and "rustified" to perfection! 

Looking for more tips?
Pretty Handy Girl has some great tips for giving your furniture a new look that suggests an interesting past.