Adventures in Whitewashing

 

Repurposed 1970's era dresser.

I am all about repurposing old furniture, and saving money. I'm in the process of re-doing the "look" in our bedroom. I decided to see about whitewashing our bedside tables, and an old dresser that used to belong to the teen and was going to be moved to our bedroom.

The bedside tables are cheap things that were given to my husband. The dresser was a hand-me-down from the 70's (very dated looking!).

Now, I knew NOTHING about whitewashing. I'm here to reassure you, it is very easy.

You'll Need:

• White, latex based paint.
• Water
• A container to mix the paint in (No lie, I used an old plastic canister that I had thrown into my yard sale pile).
• Something to mix the paint with.
• Paintbrush.
• An old rag (hello t-shirts and towels that need an excuse to be chucked).
• Sandpaper.
• Something to put on the floor if you are doing this project indoors (I did mine in the kitchen and living room on top of an old blanket.)

Before sanding.

PrePrep:

• Mix 2 parts paint to 1 part water
• Stir the paint and water mix.
• Remove all hardware.
• Lightly sand the surfaces that will be painted (just a basic quick sanding to rough up the texture, nothing professional or that takes a long time. It took me less than a minute per piece I was painting).
• Wipe down each surface after sanding to remove the dust.

After sanding

 

Ok! The prepwork is over! I promise, the rest of this is mega easy. You'll be surprised at how quick it is! I did all three pieces in less that 45 minutes!

The trick is to whitewash it one small part at a time. For example, do one side, and once it's completed, then do the other. When that's finish, do the top, and so on and so forth.



Paint. It's drippy and messy.

Using the paintbrush, paint a quick (watery) layer. It's messy and drippy, be warned. Give it about 30 seconds, then gently wipe it with the cloth. Go completely from one side of the surface to the other as you wipe (this is what gives it that "look").

Repeat the process until you have acheived the desired look you want.


Wipe down with cloth to
smooth  the "look" and
remove the paint drips.

I occasionally dipped my paintbrush into the bottom of my paint mixture (less thinned by the water), and painted stripes (also wiping it with the cloth after a moment), to create some brighter lines.


 I painted some thicker
stripes to create brighter
lines in certain spots after
it was wiped down.

While I was at it, I took the hardware I removed outside and painted it with some hammered metal spray paint to update the look.

Excited, I then spray painted some light switch covers (the ones for the kitchen and hallway). I was quite pleased with the result.



I used Krylon spray paint in
Hammered Metal finish to update
the look of the drawer hardware.

At this point I started talking about all sorts of household things I could use this spray paint on and my husband threatened a spray paint intervention if I continued. I put the can down with promises to go nuts with it one day when he wasn't home.


I will post pictures of the completed bedside tables soon, but here is the dresser.


Completed dresser. Ignore my mess, I had
yard sale piles in all the rooms that day.

Ugnspannkaka (Swedish Pancake)

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