White Wash On Wood

White washed wood is furniture that does is not painted but covered with a "wash" or diluted amount of paint and water.  With a thin covering of paint, you can still see the wood and imperfections are highlighted to give you a washed look.  If you google, white washed wood, you will see a ton of new pieces of furniture that have this look.  Some of it is pretty pricey. Before you throw out that old oak or pine piece of wood, you might want to think about this finish.  Here are some quick images I found on Pinterest.

 I don't know where the pictures above came from as there were no links to follow (don't you hate that?).  The one below is from Horchow.. isn't it beautiful?  You can have this look too and it is super easy.

So here is what I started with.  An old pine end table just like this one.

Take a dry brush and some white chalk paint.  Paint it on an let it sit for a minute or so...

Then with a moist rag, wipe it off in the direction of the wood grain.  You can do multiple layers or just one.  I did one layer on this piece (minus the streak above because I forgot to take a picture :)

I let this dry and then did a coat of Annie Sloan clear wax.   You could also use a water based polycrylic if you wanted as well.  

Super easy!   Now, if you don't like the inconsistency of wiping the paint off, you can dilute your paint, half water and half paint and dry brush this across your piece. The paint will be very thin and runny so you have to wipe your brush against the can to get most of the paint off or you will have a runny mess.  This way will also work.  Sometimes you just have try doing it different ways to figure out what you like best.

Me, I like it a bit uneven.  That's how I roll sometimes.  :)

Happy Monday!

Paula