How to Whitewash Wood {Tutorial}

Ekkk! I am working on something super exciting and I have to say I am pretty proud and I am so in LOVE. Here is your little sneak peek I can't wait to show it all to you next week. But for today I am going to share with you how I whitewashed my wood project.

This was my first time whitewashing anything and although I was really intimidated by this technique it is the look I really wanted so I put on my brave pants (well my painting pants anyway) and got to work. And can I just say it was not hard or scary at all in fact it was really quick and easy. Like I said this was my first time so I am not a pro or anything but I loved the way it turned out on the Secret Project I am working on so I must have done pretty good. Here are the tips I want to pass on to you if you are wanting to whitewash.

{Supplies Needed}

-1 part white paint (I used a 1/2 cup of white paint I had on hand)
-2 parts water (I used one up of water)
-Paint brush
-plastic bowl
-Dry Rag/cloth (I just used an old washcloth turned rag and it worked great)
 

{What I did}

The very first thing I did was sand my wood with some 220 grit sand paper and my electric sander to make sure it was smooth. Then I made sure all the dust was off of it by sweeping it off and wiping it down with a wet cloth.

Next you are going to poor your paint and water into a plastic bowl and stir it until it is mixed evenly.

Paint the white mixture onto your wood. I was working with pallets so I did one wood piece at a time. You want to make sure you work in small increments so it doesn't dry before you can spread it. Doing one section of wood at a time was the perfect space to work with.

After you paint your one section you are going to take your rag and are going to rub the paint in the direction of the grain of the wood. This will show some of the wood through the paint and make sure it is even.  Repeat the steps to every board.

For my project I wanted some of the original wood color to show through so I just painted here and there and spread it sparingly not getting too anal about getting into every crevice.

I also wanted each pallet to look a little different and have different levels of coverage. So some of them I did very lightly and others I put multiple coats of paint until I got the desired coverage.
This picture shows what it looked like before I whitewashed and then after. 

Here are my completed whitewashed boards. See how each have a little bit of different coverage. Oh my goodness I am in love. My project is huge and it took a little less than a 1/2 hour to complete. Pretty quick right.

Some fun things to whitewash are dinning room tables, coffee tables, pallet signs, photo backdrops, pallet walls, headboard, barn wood door, pretty much any type of furniture you can think of. If you love the shabby chic look you will love this. So what do you think? What are you going to whitewash?

oh and Holden says Hi. :) Don't you just want to squeeze him. Yeah he is pretty much gorgeous. He likes watching me do projects while he bounces and coos in his exersaucer. Perfect Baby.

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