Fastest Faux Barnwood

Pickling White Stain & Seal 

Remember how I told you that Pickling White Stain & Seal is the color you need? It was just on Friday so....Well this is one way that I use Pickling White on my own home. 

Many of you know about our purchase of a fixer-upper on the fly when we down-sized. I literally found it on a web search, sent Bruce and the realtor to see it and buy it if it was OK.  Let's just say it have given me a lot of opportunities to experiment with my Faux Effects products!

These were the pantry doors:

Old bi-fold doors before 

Old slab bi-folds. Now I had a vison of a beautiful barn door. But my wallet had a vision of something else.  And it turned out I didn't have room for a barn door.  But hey, I'm creative so I grabbed a couple of things to make-over the doors.

Once I figured out how to get the doors down, I cleaned and sanded them. For a base, I rolled a coat of  Royal Taupe Setcoat.  For my "barn wood" I mixed 50% water with Faux Effects Sandstone and whipped it with an electric drill and paddle. You want it to look like a paste.

Faux Effects Sandstone whipped with water for a creamy paste

I trowel the Sandstone paste over the base colors for 100% coverage.

Whipped Faux Effects Sandstone for Faux Barn wood

Next, I used a wire brush to "score" the Sandstone in long strokes. This creates the grain.

You may also use a stiff Chip brush-if you have one of those....because all artists never have a crusty brush handy!

When the Sandstone is dry, I lightly sand to so the surface feels smooth.  For my first color layer, I mix a favorite Pecan stain using these Faux Effects' products:

1 quart of FX Thinner + 1/2 cup Pickling White Stain & Seal + 1/4 cup American Stain & Seal + 1 TBSP Rich Brown Stain & Seal.  American Walnut and Rich Brown are standard useful stain colors for many projects.

I always spray my surface-especially when it's an unsealed plaster- with water. Remember water is your friend-it's an advantage of using a water-based stain product like Stain & Seal.

When the Pecan color is dry, I roll Picking White Stain & Seal mixed with FX Thinner (1:1) and wipe it back with a damp cloth.

Faux Effects Pickling White Stain & Seal rolled for Barn wood.

I want to pop the tips of the stained Sandstone. This is where I get more aggressive with the sanding block. After wiping off the dust, I rolled 2 coats of Faux Effects Aquaguard waiting an hour between coats.

To make my doors look a little more upscale, I bought thin wood strips from the big box store.  I cut them to size for the top and bottom of each door. Remember if you have bi-fold doors you will need to cut 2 pieces for the top and 2 pieces for the bottom-so it opens. Things like this seem obvious until you do it...don't ask me how I know this.

I used liquid nails to hold the pieces because they are so light weight.

Now, you could stop here and it looks pretty good. But what artist or crafter wants to stop at "pretty good?" Are we not defined by our love of embellishments?

I had some fun tacks lying around. OK.  I have boxes labeled "DO-DADS" because I'm always buying stuff at flea markets. Don't judge because I know you do it too.

There you go. So much better with the decorative tacks.

All I needed is some fun handles. These look like old plumbing wheels.. I guess there is a technical term for them. I just thought they were cute and big!

And that's it! Up-dated bi-fold doors with a fun up-cycled look!

Want to try Pickling White yourself? Don't forget that Stain & Seal is the October Product of the Month.  You may contact your local or favorite Faux Effects Studio to order-plus they should have the other products such as Sandstone and Aquaguard used in this DIY story.

As always...thanks for reading Finishing Acts and your comments and messages. If you have ideas or questions for future posts please drop me an email at rebecca@fauxfx.com

Rebecca