How to Distress Furniture?

Hi, 

Giving furniture an older look is the trend these days. A few days back, I, along with my wife, visited the flea market. We happened to spot a table that looked exactly like the one we had at home but distressed. So, I decided to make our current table like that. Since I wasn’t aware of how do I distress a piece of furniture, I learned it and then distressed our table. Here are the steps that I followed. 

How To Paint And Distress Furniture

• Prepare the space by laying down cloth or newspaper and then place the furniture on top of it. Following this, remove all metal hardware from it. 

• Use sandpaper to clean the surface of the furniture. Painted areas or polyurethane-treated areas need to be sanded a bit more. Use a cloth or a rag to remove the dust and dirt. 

• You can also paint the furniture if you want it to appear as if it was painted. You need two colors of paint to make sure that the base color is visible through the top color. One color would suffice if you want wood to show instead of color. 

• Start by painting the furniture, and if you want another color to show after the distressing process, you can apply wax to certain areas before applying the second color. 

• To know how distress painted furniture, you can use sandpaper and steel wool to start the destressing process. If you have applied one color, sandpaper would be enough, and if you have applied two colors, use the steel wool to do some damage to the colors. 

• To provide the furniture with an antique look, apply a coat of stain over it. After this apply a clear polyurethane to seal the piece and protect it. 

And that is how to distress furniture with chalk paint. I hope your question: how do I distress a piece of furniture has been answered now. 

In the days of our grandmothers, damaged furniture or picture frames indicated that they had been carried along through several generations. However, nowadays distressed effect is popular and gives character to a variety of decor styles. It includes deliberately distressing the wood to give it a weathered look. I have followed the below steps to distress finish furniture.

How to distress furniture with Vaseline?

For the purpose of making my chipping and distressing smoother to manage, I decided to attempt distressing using Vaseline. I was amazed when I saw the final look of my furniture. Let’s check out the easiest tips for distressing using Vaseline:

• Determine the sections of your furniture where you want it to appear worn before you start putting on Vaseline. 

• Follow standard distressing guidelines while emphasising drawers, corners, and rising surfaces for a naturally distressed appearance. Make sure to treat any rubbed surfaces.

• Immerse the tip of your paintbrush into the Vaseline and dab it on the distressed sections of your furniture. 

• You can start painting after applying Vaseline to the regions where you'd like it to seem worn.

• If you intend to apply latex paint, get ready to sand on the edge and prime your furniture.

• After the paint has set, rub the parts in which the Vaseline had been put down with an old rag or sandpaper.

The coating of paint peels off the surface in just a couple of seconds and reveal a beautifully worn distressed paint finish. Moreover, to maintain the polished appearance of distressed furniture for a long period, you can also add safeguards like clear wax. I hope you found this hack helpful.