An antique or vintage furniture piece can add personality and charm to any room. They can look very classic and posh while other pieces may come off as rugged and rusty. Both different but still beautiful, this is also for you if you love the French Provincial look. Creating your own “antique” furniture is also pretty easy and inexpensive. If you’re looking for a new diy project or you just really love antique pieces, here’s how you can distress or antique a piece of furniture.

Guide to Antiquing Furniture

How to “Antique” Furniture

Transform your plain furniture into a distressed piece by following these easy steps.

Materials Needed

• Gloves/Safety Glasses – you’re going to be in contact with chemicals, so it’s better to protect your hands as well as your eyes.
• Brush/ Painting Tools
• Satin Latex Paint for the Base Coat
• Wood Stain or a Satin Latex Paint for the Top Coat
• Sandpaper
• Antiquing Kit / Crackling Kit – luckily, there’s a readily antiquing kit available on some craft stores. You just have to choose the color or the finish you like.

Antiquing Furniture Without An Antiquing Kit

If you can’t find an antiquing kit in your local craft store, here’s how to do it.

1. Prepare your materials.
2. Sand the furniture piece you’re going to transform. If the furniture is already painted with a finish, you’ll have to sand the surface well until all the paint is off. Make sure to wipe it with a cloth after you’ve sanded it.
3. Paint the furniture with a base coat. Remember it’s important to pick a high-quality base coat so that your top coat will stick better.
4. If you want a slightly distressed look, after the base coat is dry, sand the parts of the furniture that you’ll want to look distressed. For a natural look, the standard rule of thumb is to place the distress in where the furniture will naturally have a wear and tear – where you hold it or where it could get easily nicked.
5. For a really distressed and worn look, you can be more hard on sanding the piece after the base coat. You can also use two kinds of paint for a more antique look. Sand the piece and then paint it with a wood colored paint. Once it has dried, you can add a layer of paint that you like and leave out some parts where the first coat is visible. To get a good gradient or blend, sand them.
6. Once you’ve achieved the color that you like, you can apply a wood stain to the piece or a different satin latex paint.

Antiquing Furniture With An Antiquing Kit

1. Get your antiquing kit and start with a primer coat. After that, apply a couple coat of your base color.
2. With a clean foam brush, apply the crackle undercoat. Once the crackle undercoat dries and you think that it’s a bit dull, you can add more coats to the furniture.
3. Apply the crackle top coat with a sponge. Dab on the surface with an even and consistent pressure. Try not to cover the same area twice to bring out its effect.
4. Using a clean sponge, apply a light coat of the antiquing medium. For a more dramatic and bold look, don’t be afraid to add more coats. Optionally, you can also add a matte-finish sealer to your piece.

And that’s how you turn a dull piece into an instant antique furniture heirloom. What piece would you do a makeover? Leave a comment below!