Distressing Oak Furniture

To distress the finish and make the painted surface look more naturally weathered take the sander back to the surface of the furniture when the paint has dried.
Distressing oak furniture. When the base coat is dry start sanding off areas that would naturally end up distressed places where hands would have held it or corners that could easily get nicked. Family owned and operated naturwood started as a tiny furniture store on stockton boulevard over 70 years ago. Thanks to the vision of john a.
With emphasis on the edges of the furniture use the sander to gently remove some of the paint and primer allowing the underlying wood to show through. Once the piece is fully dry you can begin to remove some of the paint and distress the piece with steel wool and sandpaper. All three methods work similarly in the way that they create a resist in certain spots so the paint can be lifted off later.
I start with a stiff twisted wire cup brush then work my way to a cup that is not twisted and finish off with a soft cup brush. If you painted two coats use the steel wool to go over the waxed areas. Use cheap wood distressing wood to look old usually involves some superficial damage to the wood surface because of this there is no need to use expensive wood.
Apply one coat of paint to your piece. Make sure that your first coat of paint is properly cured so that it won t come off when you distress it. We recommend letting the first coat dry for at least 24 hours when you are using the wet distressing technique.
Rub candle wax on the areas where you d like to see color show through. Click here for higher quality full size image. You don t have to be so aggressive.
For the bare wood look. This table is white oak that was wire brushed. For the color look.