I love, love, LOVE weathered barnwood but I’m way too frugal to pay for it. And I know that the expense is just not necessary, so I thought to post this tutorial – how to achieve a beautiful barnwood finish on new wood in just 2 steps!
We were in the midst of renos not so long ago. I was knee-deep in treating boards – whitewashed boarded ceilings, aged beams, posts and boards for a guest bathroom. I was also staining wide plank softwood flooring for the entire floor and using another distressing technique for a bedroom ceiling. And there was another for barn doors we had built AND closet doors we had made from the leftover pieces. I had wood and finishes coming out of my ears! Over 2000 sq ft of boards when I counted all 4 surfaces. All different treatments and I was doing them all myself by hand – board by board!! I was going out of my mind! But the wine helped!
There is no greater satisfaction than doing it yourself tho and achieving the look you’re after, saving yourself $ and at the end of the day, knowing that you had a hand in designing your space, improving your home and increasing its value.
You’ll seriously want to try this finish! It’s quick, fast-drying, looks totally authentic and due to the unique and individual tones of each board and your own technique in applying both steps, you’ll get some really nice variations between boards so that it doesn’t look too contrived or thought out.
Materials Needed For A Barnwood Finish
- Water-based stain – mix 2 parts stain to 1 part water
- An interior latex paint in a dark grey or black – mix 2 parts paint to 1 part water
- An interior latex paint in a shade of off-white in a flat or eggshell sheen
- Regular paint brush
- Chip paint brush
- Clean cloths
- Disposable gloves
- A plastic container and one you don’t mind tossing. I keep a stash of the larger margarine tubs for exactly this purpose. You’ll be needing two for mixing your stain/paint and water and can toss them later.
- Dropcloths
- Damp paper towel – ALWAYS keep a damp paper towel close by so that you can catch mistakes quickly. It will save you time and frustration in trying to fix a mistake
Make sure to have all of your required materials gathered before you start.
These boards were going up in a guest bathroom as a wainscotting, part of the shower enclosure wall, the shower gate door etc as well as on a ceiling in a guest bedroom. They weren’t going on a floor where they would have to stand up to a lot of wear and tear so I used this stain, Minwax water-based in American Walnut. The paint I used in the dry-brushing process was one that I already had on hand in an off-white – Benjamin Moore’s Mountain Peak White to be exact.
I used raw and unfinished spruce boards for this project instead of pine. Reason #1 being that spruce boards are far less expensive than pine but the main reason being that Spruce will have a bit more “tooth” as they may say in the world of renos as it’s slightly rougher – usually on at least one side and it will accept the chip brush more ideally in the latter step of dry-brushing for the result that I was after.
Step #1 To A Barnwood Finish
I laid out a dropcloths on the table and under as this process can get messy due to the solutions being thinner.
You’re going to use your diluted walnut stain AND your black paint wash in this step.
On the rough side of a new board, apply your diluted latex stain base with a brush. You don’t want to load the brush – a translucent color on your board is what you’re after so don’t overload your brush with stain. I brushed it on quickly and sporadically. Then went to the black paint/water mixture, and haphazardly applied that as well to the board. Then immediately worked the stain AND black paint wash into the wood with a damp cloth. That way, both remain damp and workable as once it dries, it’s not. It will dry quickly so it’s advisable to not get distracted with something else. If the dog has to go out, he’s got to wait for in between boards!
As I finished each board with the mixtures, I stood them against the wall to dry. The stain was only going on one side of the boards so it was no biggy. Any stain spot that came in contact with the wall was easily wiped off with a wet cloth/paper towel and I had leftover wall paint if I didn’t get them soon enough with the wet cloth.
You can also opt to do a few boards in one OR the other (the stain OR the black paint wash) as you’ll find that it lends a really authentic look to your project. What makes this finish successful is in the haphazard way you that apply the stain OR paint and on some boards, both. Nothing is measured here in terms of application. Just mix it up a bit. The less you try to make them match perfectly, the better the effect.
If you’re doing a batch of boards at once as I did of 10, by the time you get back to the board that you started with, it will be dry enough to proceed with step #2. It takes the board probably 15 minutes to be ready for the next step. It will take you approx. 20 minutes to do 10 boards and you’re good to go on to step #2 with that batch.
Step #2 To A Barnwood Finish
For step #2, you’ll be dry-brushing. This is a crucial step in the finish as is the way you will hold the brush over the boards as you’re applying the off-white paint.
Now, although super easy, this part is crucial and will determine your end result.
You’ll be using the chip brush for this. Your brush needs to have the most minimal of paint on it. It needs to be distributed over the entire length of the bristles but really lightly and the angle of your hand and force of contact with the brush to the board will determine the end result. You need a very light touch for this.
So here’s how that goes:
Fold a few sheets of paper towel together so that they’re a few plies thick. You’re going to use the paper towel to paint on. This will remove the bulk of the paint from your paint brush.
Dip the tip of the chip brush into the can of paint. You’ll then transfer the brush to the paper towels, brushing back and forth on the paper towel until your brush is almost dry. The idea is to have as little trace of paint on the brush as possible but yet covering all of the bristles.
After removing much of the paint from your brush, position your hand very close to the board. Holding the brush at a steep angle, drag the brush very lightly along the length of the board. Pay close attention as it won’t take a lot of paint or pressure. The idea is to drag your brush toward you along the surface of the board but making very little contact. See the pics above.
You may get a thin coat of white on the edge of some of your boards as you’ll see in my pics. That can be easily removed with a quick swipe of an extra-fine sandpaper once it’s dried.
Stand the boards up against a wall to dry for 24 hrs.
There is no need to protect the board further. If you’ll be applying them to interior walls, ceilings, or using them in a project that won’t be receiving abuse, then you’re good to go. They can be applied without further protection.
We were using these particular boards for walls of a guest bathroom with good ventilation and one to be used maybe twice a year. We had also made the outside shower wall out of the same boards and installed a clear shower liner on a cable. That way we could be sure the wood was shielded from getting wet when the shower is in use. As a precaution evenso, I applied one coat of a satin interior clear coat to the inside shower wall only and left the other side without. That way, if it does receive moisture, it won’t become trapped inside the wood and the wood can still breathe.
I would suggest that you practice both of these steps on a few pieces of scrap spruce so that you can get a feel for the type of surface your wood has; to determine how much pressure to apply to your boards in the dry-brushing stage with the chip brush and to see for yourself, just how lightly loaded the chip brush needs to be. In dry-brushing, the most absolute minimum amount of paint on your brush before beginning the 2nd step, is the key to this beautiful aged paint effect.
Enjoy your new barnwood! Shhhh…you don’t have to tell anyone that it’s new wood!
See you next post,
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