How To Make Paint Look Distressed Without Sanding

There are times when I want to make paint look distressed but using sandpaper is not the way to go. That was the case with the two wood chests I just re-painted and was hoping to distress with a sander.

The chests had been painted before, and when I distressed the paint with my sander, the paint underneath came shining through. Sometimes, that isn’t a bad thing, but it is when the top layer of paint is a pretty light blue and the under layer of paint is Pepto Bismol pink.

 

You also don’t want to use sandpaper if the furniture or piece you want distressed is made of MDF or fake wood. The “wood” will crumble, and what is left will plump up when it gets wet—not pretty. You also might not want to use a sander or sandpaper because you don’t have an open area or place to let the dust fly.

 

One very good reason not to use sandpaper and try this method instead is that you can get the distressed furniture look that is oh-so-popular now. The furniture for sale at the high-end furniture stores is not really distressed.

The distressed look is achieved by applying dark paint over lighter paint, which gives the appearance of distressed paint. But it needs to be done the right way. I’ll show you how, and I also have a neat video I made while faux-distressing the pair of chests.

I bought the two wood chests at My Favorite Junk Shop. They were $10 each. The blue color was really pretty, soft and muted. I originally planned to just clean it up and distress it a bit more.

The pink chest was not a pretty color. The smaller wood chest fits inside the pink chest. I think these may have been sold by the Bombay company.

One of my readers commented on this company when I painted and aged the small table with the white top. The chests were a dark wood finish originally.

I first cleaned up the blue chest because I really did like the paint color. Then I started distressing the paint because the painted finish was uneven and had some scuffed places. Well, the pink paint started showing through and that was it for me.

I went to my paint shelves and couldn’t find a blue color similar to the color of the chest. I started mixing paints and came up with a blue a bit lighter and not as muted as the original color. I painted the whole chest, including the small pulls on either end.

 

You can see the difference in paint colors in the photo above. The bottom paint is the new paint. It’s wet here but dried a shade darker.

I brushed two coats of blue paint over the pink. Both chests had paint drips, cracked paint, and split wood areas. I just painted over it all as it was.

That’s the beauty of distressing and faux-distressing paint. The flawed areas and little raised details look beautiful distressed.

Once the paint was nice and dry I started the process of layering paint on the raised details of the chests to make the paint look distressed. Watch the video below to see how it works. A simple photo does not show this well.

How To Make Paint Look Distressed Without Sanding

The layering block is from FolkArt. To use it, apply a thin coat of paint to the bottom of the wood block and then dab some of it off with a paper towel.

Next, run the block over the details and edges of the piece, or do like I do and run it over the whole thing. Re-apply paint to the block as needed.

The wood chests look so much better. I thought about stenciling something in the circle on top and the circles on the front but I couldn’t figure out what to use. Sometimes it’s best to just leave things plain.

You would never know that the blue paint is not really distressed. The dark areas look like the wood layer under the paint. What do you guys think of this method to “distress” paint?

 

There are other ways to distress paint. I like to use the wet distress method here Wet Distress Paint Technique: Use A Household Cleaner

This method to distress paint is one of my personal favorites..How To Distress Furniture Using Baby Wipes

I also like to use Vaseline to layer paint like here..Vaseline Paint Layering Technique For Furniture

As always thanks for being here. I know you guys have other things to do. Have a great day, Kathy