New furniture and wooden fittings can look bland and boring and may not fit into your existing dcor scheme. Distressing cabinet doors, in kitchens, bedrooms or elsewhere, is a way of treating wooden fittings to co-ordinate your dcor. Ageing techniques can be useful whether your home style is antique elegance, ‘shabby chic’ or cottage rustic. Faux painting offers several methods for simulating age and banishing the ‘too-new’ look.

Distressing Techniques

You could give your cabinet doors a managed beating with hammer and chisel to create texture and interest. This will certainly distress your door, but with faux painting techniques you can choose amongst several aged or antique looks and achieve a total finish.

The basic technique involves creating the illusion of wear and age-related texture using two layers of paint. For a more variegated effect, more than two colors can be used. Scraping and scarring the topcoat so the layer beneath shows through gives the impression of age. It is possible to achieve a similar effect by painting streaks with a fine brush, but this may require more artistic expertise. Applying a top coat and then, before it has dried, using the dragging or combing technique to remove areas of paint can also create a distressed look on wooden doors.

Any contrasting color combination can be used to create the appearance of depth. Brown and gray is another possibility. More usually, it is used as part of an antique natural wood finish, with a rich dark brown topcoat masquerading as the patina of the decades or centuries, covering lighter wood beneath.

Distressing With Wax:

Instead of scraping off areas of the second layer of paint before it dries, wax (typically beeswax) is applied in streaks, stripes or patches. When it has set, the paint topcoat is applied. Though it will cover the wax, when sanded both paint and wax are removed, exposing the base coat. You have considerable control over the finished effect, depending on the grade of sandpaper and how heavily or lightly you sand it.

Using Crackle Glaze :

As varnish on old furniture ages, it dries and cracks in a characteristic crazed pattern. By applying a layer of crackle glaze in between the base coat and top coat, you can replicate this effect. Note that oil paint is not suitable for use with crackle glaze. You need latex paints to get the required effect.

Pickling :

This is a paint technique that involves applying paint to an unpainted wooden cabinet door and then fairly randomly wiping it off before it dries. This technique is an easy way to give the impression of years of use and wear and is good if you want to leave some wood grain exposed to view.

Whichever technique you choose, adding texture to plain surfaces is not complicated and can add the finishing touch to your chosen dcor style.