White Washed Wood Tutorial {A textured and distressed finish}

 Of cource, first you feel a surprising feeling of pride as you see the happy look of accomplishment on the babies face as he grips tightly to the now goopy paint brush. 

You don’t know whether to quickly snap a picture for proof to share with your husband that “day offs” are not always filled with soap operas and bon bon eating. But, you can’t figure out, if you should reach for your hand dandy cell phone camera or grab the babies paint covered hands before he can follow you, in his split second way of doing things, and spread those little painted hand prints on everything between him and you.

You cant decide what to do, but you do know you have to hunt down the “lemon juicer”, because you are going to have to make something with today’s Life Lemons.

So, after some hand washing, and picture taking, and some mild scolding, you get to “fixing” the problem at hand.

Lemonade can come in the form of new paint tequniques around here.

The outcome was more than I could have hoped for. 

Clearly, the baby watched on too, you know, so he can “help” me refinish some unsuspecting piece of furniture next time.

To get this white washed, textured and weathered look you will need:

White paint

Some glaze

A small container for mixing your glaze and paint

An old rag (I used an old dish towel)

A soft bristle paint brush

Newspaper

Paper towel

To get started:

First, mix your white paint (that was meant for your walls and entry way and NOT your stool) with two parts glaze to one part paint.

Then get a rag to dip in your glaze and paint mixture.

Pull out some old newspapers to use when you wipe off any excess paint from your soft bristle brush.

To get the look of white washed wood with tons of texture, dip your soft rag into the paint and glaze mixture and wipe on to your wood. Wipe off any excess with your paper towel. Next, gently dip your bristle paint brush into your plain white paint and then swipe your plain white paint on your newspapers, your brush will be lightly covered in paint and then you will be able to dry brush your paint on to your piece of furniture to add texture and interest.

See? An easy change for what looked like a ruined stool.

Hopefully this will help my children scale the height of this stool cautiously, and perhaps the words will remind me, as their mama, that life is to be enjoyed and not raced through. 

These babies will only be little for so long, they wont always be dipping their little hands into paint cans, and they wont always be trying to “help” me. I am trying every day to soak in these times that may not be ideal, because the truth I am learning during these early years with these little people, is that, a messy home is proof that together, we are making memories.

I hope you’re able to make some lemonade too, with whatever life throws at you today. 🙂