How To Whitewash Furniture

Whitewashing wooden floor or furniture may make them look older without a long process of covering them with paint-and-lacquer materials. Unlike the process of renovating the furniture, whitewashing has a different effect and it makes your furniture look a bit “worn out”. You can learn how to whitewash wood within one day. All you need is several things from a household’s shop.

Choosing Wood

1. Do not ever whitewash wood that is in good condition. This will destroy its still existing colour and trimming.

2. Find walls or floor that can be whitewashed. There is the same technique used for whitewashing walls, floor and ceilings as when the furniture is whitewashed.

3. If you choose wood with trimming, you’ll need to use a chemical solvent to remove the layers of paint. The process of preparation will be longer. If you manage to find untrimmed wood, you’ll need to treat it with emery paper in order to make its surface smooth.

Cleaning The Wood

1. Get the item of furniture in a room or place with good ventilation. You shouldn’t clean the wood inside your house. Choose a place that has an opening right into the street. For example, a garage. If you decide to use a chemical solvent, you need to put the item near the opened door.

2. On big surfaces, you need to use a grinder. Removing the paint from the surface may be a rather difficult task.

3. Use a hand block on small pieces of wood. It is more convenient to use a hand block than separate sheets of emery paper.

4. Use chemical solvent. You may buy it at a household’s store near by. You need to always wear overalls to protect your body. Also, put on rubber or plastic gloves and safety glasses.

5. Wipe the surface with a wet rag. Once you use a grinder and a chemical solvent, wipe the surface of the wood with a wet rag so that to clean it of the last elements of dust and chemical solvent.

Mixing Paint

1. Buy a colourant at a household’s store. If do not want to mix the paint on your own, you may buy it at a store.

2. Read the instruction on how to mix whitewash. Whitewash is, actually, a diluted white paint that will give to the wood a minimal colour.

3. When you choose the whitewashing mixture, you should take into account the item that you’ll whitewash.

Whitewashing The Wood

1. Put on the rubber gloves.

2. Take old rags and a paintbrush. You’ll do with the both of them when you’re whitewashing. The thing is that the result will be different.

3. Do the work slowly and carefully. Cover small parts at once. When you’re whitewashing, the paint dries faster than when you’re simply painting. The reason for it is that the paint is diluted.

4. Give the paint time to dry. If the paint has a water base, decrease the time of paint drying given on the paint jar for several hours.

5. If the colour is too light on some parts, you may cover the wood with one more layer of paint. You also may cover the wood with the 2nd layer to conceal the renovated parts that look rather rough.

6. Let the whitewashed wood dry during the nighttime period.

Finish Whitewash

1. Polish the parts of wood that look too dark.

2. Wipe the surface with a wet rag.

3. Cover it with polyurethane water-based sealant that make the surface look as if trimmed with satin.