How To Make White Paint Look Old The Easy Way

I get a lot of questions about how to make white paint look old or aged or antiqued. It’s a popular look. White furniture, especially if the paint is white white,  is kind of blah without some kind of special finish. I can show you how to take the blah look to an AH look. I have a very, very, short video on the antiquing process.

The small table project for today has a painted top and the original stained legs and base. I liked the original stained finish so I cleaned it up a bit then shined it up. But the white top had to get better or go. I decided on a plan for the top but some plans go out the window like this one did.

Before and after table makeover and how to make white paint look old

This is how the table looked when I purchased it. I bought it from an acquaintance who was downsizing her stash of to-do projects. I paid $12 for the table. I did more work to this table than I needed to but I’ll get into that later in the post.

How To Make White Paint Look Old

The table top was either missing or a mess because Debbie had put a new top on the table before I bought it. The top is just a basic piece of wood painted white.

The spindle legs and feet were missing a bit of the original stained finish but I decided to work with that instead of painting. The table was too pretty to change it completely.

Paint The Table

The Just Duckie color from Miss Lillian’s No-Wax Chock Paint I’m addicted to was my color choice for the table top. That was the plan but after painting the top blue I decided white was a better contrast to the base of the table. I could have left the top as it was and moved on to the next step. I went through 2 paint steps I didn’t need to do.

Distress The Paint

Next I distressed the white paint just a bit using my favorite 3M flexible sandpaper. I like to use a power sander for distressing paint but I have more control when by hand using a small piece of sandpaper.

Make The White Paint Look Old

To age the white paint I used Caromal Colours Toner. This is one of my favorite DIY products. The process to make any paint color look old is as simple as brushing the toner onto the paint and then wiping it off with a damp rag until you get the desired effect. Easy as pie. At one time I sold the toner on Etsy but had to let that go to concentrate on projects . You can buy the toner at Caromal Colours here .

You can see how I use the toner in the video tutorial. And just to be clear, you can use the toner on any color paint, not just white. I have a great project here where I used toner on black paint....5 Steps To Antique Painted Furniture.

Refresh The Stained Table Base

For the base I just did a quick cleaning with Simple Green and then I freshened the finish with Howard’s Feed n Wax.

The table top turned out great and I’m glad I didn’t paint the base. It’s not perfect but that’s okay…..because the table is old and the little imperfections add character.

A two tone furniture look that includes the original stained finish highlighted with a bit of paint is one of my favorite furniture finishes. I’m taking the table to my booth to sell and the price is really cheap. There are so many of my projects I would like to keep but that means getting rid of piece too!

How To Make White Paint Look Old The Easy Way

I took photos of the table in the orange and turquoise bedroom. Be sure and watch the video showing how I used the toner below….

How To Make White Paint Look Old The Easy Way

You can also age, antique, or make paint look old using dark wax. I painted an unfinished wood chest with red paint and used dark wax to make the paint look old. The wax also gives paint a nice patina. Take a look at the photo of the red chest below......

How To Make White Paint Look Old The Easy Way

Find the products used in both makeovers on the Petticoat Junktion Amazon page here. As always, thanks for being here and have a great day, Kathy  (p.s. leave a note, I read them all)