How do you make distressed furniture?

That is one of most asked questions I get after I’ve made a painted piece of furniture.  So I thought I’d share how I do that.

First off let me say the projects I make are typically not beat up. I really do not believe that after going through all the time & effort to build the thing that I should then be beating the hell out of it!

Now if in the building process I find I mistakenly cut a piece too short or did something stupid that can’t be fixed… well then its game on! (But at this stage I’m taking no survivors. I’m making firewood!)

Anyway, back to my method…

Once I have completed the woodworking part of the piece I go ahead & stain the entire piece. Let that dry & then spray a few coats of shellac to seal it.

From here, I tape off or take off the part that isn’t getting painted & go through the finishing of it how I normally would.

Once I have that part completed I turn my attention to the paint.

While I’m mixing the acrylic paint (I use Olde Century Colors paint) I map out in my mind how I’m going to paint the piece in sections.

For example in the bench project I just did I painted it in this order:

• the support rails
• one end
• then the other end

Once I’ve completed a section & it’s almost dry I take a soaking wet (but not dripping) wash cloth & wipe the paint away where I think it might wear & tear. Then I wipe away a few spots just to give it a little more effect.

From here I rinse out the wash cloth & I move on to the next section & repeat the process until the entire piece is completed.

After completely drying I look at where I’ve exposed the stained parts & see if I might have gone overboard. If I have I simply repaint that part of that section.

When I’m satisfied with what I see I reassemble the project & put it to use.

And that’s how I go about making a distressed painted project. I know there are a lot of other ways to do this but let’s face it I’m lazy & this method is simple.

I mean it did take me 7 years to build the piece!

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Recently I was told that on May 24th of 2004 that I finished building the following Shaker inspired table.

Now I didn’t believe that but I was also told how I quickly took photos of the table & sent them to Woodcentral.com to be posted.

So I told my wife how she was surely nuts! There was no way I build this table that long ago. I mean come on! After all I was the one who build the table! (BTW, after searching I found out that I was of course WRONG!)

The next question that came up was when I thought I might get around to building anything that resembles a seat for it.

Now in my defense that hasn’t been 100% my fault. We could never answer questions on do we buy or build or what style would chairs would look good and this time was no different. We couldn’t even agree to disagree.

So one day while I was out I got a phone call pleading with me to at least build two benches so we could at least use the table.

Once I got home I mocked up a shaker style bench. We went through the design making changes & talking about how to finish it.

I then told her how I could have them done in start to finish within the week. (That was 2 months ago!)

Well never to be one they could call slow, I finally got started on building them. Here’s the progress so far.

Now my question is this: “Can I pawn this off as a anniversary present?” Now I’m joking I assure you! (But hypothetically, what if I wasn’t?!?)

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This past Saturday I attended the Freud Tools Event that Popular Woodworking put together that was hosted by the Friends of  White Water Shaker Village.

Now to be honest, I couldn’t give a rat’s rear-end about the Freud part of the event.  (Even though I love Freud blades and use them on everything I bolt them onto!) My interest was 110% focused on where the event was taking place!

See, this village is 2.2 miles from my home and I had no freaking idea it even existed prior to reading Megan’s post on the blog.  I felt like a complete moron.  Really, how can one have that history 3 stone throws away and not have a clue?

Anyway, I made sure to clear of my calendar of busy house chores and yard work (actually I just ignored them) so I could attend.

Man I was amazed.  As I arrived to the event I had passed several buildings that were part of the village, a shaker cemetery, and all kinks of new homes intertwined.

When we arrived we were greeted with coffee and doughnuts (anyone who knows Glen Huey know these are his two favorite food groups!) and immediately invited into the buildings for a bit of a history lesson on village and their culture.

After that we were invited on tours of the buildings and left to walk around and venture off.

Some of the things I learned:

1. In the floor of meeting house were dots inlayed that were dance cues.
2. That once a family entered the society, they were no longer husband and wife.
3. Shakers often took in orphans, taught them a life skill and at 18 they got to chose to stay or venture out into the world.
4. They had two doors into the meeting room. One for the men and one for the women.
5. Since they didn’t have a lot of lumber they built their dwelling and meeting house out of bricks.
6. They didn’t die off because of the whole celibate deal; it was more due to innovation of manufacturing taking over their trades.
7. The hole in the roof of the first floor of the meeting house was there so the prior owners could put a hot tub upstairs.
8. While the family lived on the second story the kids had the first floor to ride their big wheels around and around.
9. The meeting house was also at one time storage area for grain for own owner.
10. The SVoWW group leases the village from Miami Whitewater Park who purchased it from the prior set of owners.

Also during my visit,  Glen introduced me to a couple of people on their board so I could discuss with them ways of  building their web site to help drive membership which they are in desperate needed.

See, they are non-profit all volunteer group that is restoring this entire village that is need of A LOT of work!  (And that is a huge understatement!)  So if you’re near buy, check them out.  It’s well worth your time!

(Here are photos from the tour)

P.S. The Freud part was pretty cool too!  They were great and showed of some of their upcoming tools.

EXTRAS: Google Map location and Google 3d Warehouse photos of the village

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Text to come; but for now enjoy the photos from my visit to White Water Shaker Villiage.

P.S. the one with the hole in the ceiling was so the past owners could get a hot tub upstairs!

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