Wet Distress Paint Technique: Use A Household Cleaner

How To Wet Distress Paint Without The Mess!

I learned this trick a while ago and haven’t shared it before, I don’t think. I call it the household cleaner wet distress paint technique and I actually use Simple Green but I figure any good cleaner will work. I have a short video showing the technique along with a lot of photos of the finished chest. It’s Furniture Fixer Upper Tour Day too so let's get started.

I wish you guys could see this chest of drawers in person. The knobs were a questionable choice but I put them on and didn’t look back. The small details are hard to see in the photos but the whole look works.

The chest is what I call a chest on chest and it’s one of my favorite furniture styles. The piece has a few curvy details too.

I bought the chest of drawers at an online auction and only had the photos to go by when bidding. I won the bid at $45 plus 10% auction fees. Not a bad price.

The photo collage above shows a small part of the process I went through to clean and repair the chest. It was very dirty and I used the shop vac and Simple Green to clean it up. A couple of the drawers needed repairing but that didn’t take much. I used my Ryobi brad nailer ( a favorite tool) to put the drawers back together.

Also most of the drawer stops were missing. I couldn’t find any at the local hardware stores so I ordered some online. A small pack of 12 metal drawer stops was almost $9. Highway robbery.

I always remove the drawer pulls before painting furniture. The chest was getting modernized and I didn’t want to use the old pulls so I bagged and saved them for a future project.

For the color I chose Just Duckie in Miss Lillian’s No-Wax Chock Paint. I just happen to know Marilyn the creator of the paint. She has a booth in the shop I’m in and I knew her before she became famous! She calls her paint “Chock” because you know the “Chalk Paint” name is trademarked.

Just Duckie is soft blue with just a hint of green. Reminds me of the beach. I applied one coat of paint and it covered pretty well. I applied a second coat about an hour after the first coat. The paint dried really fast. I use my FolkArt Chalk brush with all paints. I love it.

I distressed the paint by spraying Simple Green on a rag and wiping it over the drawer edges and the details on the chest casing.

It took me a while to decide how I was going to finish the chest so the paint had dried for 2 or 3 days. It’s much easier to wet distress the paint when it has only been dry for a few hours or a day at most.

I didn't take photos while filming the short video so the two photos above are clips from the video and they aren't the best. You can see how cool the distressing looks on the detailed picture frame in the photo above.

Tip: Wipe the Simple Green dampened rag over the surface you want to wet distress and let it wait about a minute. The paint will be easier to distress.

You ask “Why wet distress”? Because wet distressing showcases the original furniture finish. When you use sandpaper to distress paint it usually takes the paint down to raw wood unless you are very careful.

I had a hard time deciding what knobs to use. I went through my stash and I went to Hobby Lobby to look at knobs. Nothing seemed right. I had the ones above in the workshop. I bought them at Bargain Hunt store a few weeks ago. The price was right ($5/box) and they were pretty.

I bought two boxes of the black with gold rims and 2 boxes of metallic silver knobs. I needed 10 black knobs for the chest and only had 8. I went back to the store and luckily they still had a few boxes. I wasn’t sure how the knobs would look but they seemed to be the only option I had.

The knobs really pop against the blue and the contrast of the dark knobs and soft paint gives the chest a classy look.

It’s hard to see the pretty gold rim around the knobs in the front on photos of the chest. You can see in this photo how shiny they are.

The original finish on the chest had a red tone to it but the distressed areas of the chest are very dark, almost black.

The Just Duckie color was so pretty I looked around the shop and found a few more items to paint. I distressed the mirror and large frame too. I used sandpaper on the mirror and Simple Green on the frame.

You can see how the Simple Green works in the video. Take a look at the video below. It’s very, very short......

How To Wet Distress Paint

Household Cleaner Wet Distress Paint Technique

So what do you think of the paint color and what do you think about wet distressing paint with a household cleaner? Find my favorite DIY products including brushes and paints on my Amazon page here.

Please leave a note then click the links below the “before makeover” photo collage to see what beauties my friends have this month.