Category: Top Tips

3 Quick and Easy Tips for Creating 
Aged Effects on Furniture

Karen Jones

Creative Artisan
Title

To create an authentic aged look, it's time to throw the rule book out of the window and paint like a two-year-old! Seriously, the worse it looks at the beginning, I guarantee the more authentically and beautifully aged it will be at the end. So, no more neat finishes, no more smoothing out the surface when painting, a textured surface is a good thing, and if the paint finish looks imperfect — you’ve nailed it!

1. Create texture

Use the Original Artisan Range as this range is the only one that does not self-level and therefore is ideal for the aged look. Apply the paint thickly and just before it is dry, move it around, dragging the almost dry paint over the surface. 


Allow this to dry fully before doing the same again with another colour — tip here is to not cover the whole area in one colour and then move on the next, but blend one into another and add more texture and paint in the areas you want to distress later, e.g. around the sides of cupboard doors and mouldings.

 
Using a hairdryer to speed up the process works well, especially for the ambidextrous out there who are able to have paint brush in one hand and hairdryer in the other!

What I've used:

Sugar Puff Original Artisan

Anguilla Original Artisan

Lady Grey Original Artisan

Medium Oval Brush - 50mm

2. How to add the distressed look

For the distressed look, a minimum of two colours is needed – as when you sand through in areas, seeing another colour, and the wood underneath gives the impression that over time this piece of furniture has been re-loved time and time again.

I personally like to use three or more colours on the base, whilst adding texture (see above) and then paint all over with one block colour, before gently sanding back in areas where it would naturally show wear and tear over time, around drawer handles and knobs for example.

 

Use sandpaper, sanding sponges, or blocks, and for the really distressed, chippy look, use a scraper or blade to scrape away more for that perfect “found in a barn” look.

3. Add the aged look with Frenchic wax

The simplest way to make a piece of furniture look aged is to use Browning Wax in all the corners, nooks and crannies — in fact, anywhere, where over time, you would expect to find a build-up of life’s little annoyances like dust and grime, which naturally occur over time in hard to clean areas. A Frenchic Stencilling Brush is ideal for this as it’s small and gets into all those hard to reach places. 

 

For subtle aging, wax with Clear Wax. For a different aged look, try White Wax over textured Lady Grey – it looks very Gustavian in style. For an aged coastal feel, try it over Pool Boy or Grey Pebble. 

What I've used:

Browning Wax

400ml Clear Wax

Small Wax Brush

Stencil Brush

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