Shabby Chic Painted Furniture: How to Paint and Distress

Create your own shabby chic furniture for a cool, funky look. Shabby chic furniture is extremely popular, but can be very expensive. It is quite easy and even fun to paint and distress your own pieces. Poke around yard sales, vintage stores, or your own attic to see if you can find old pieces of furniture that would lend themselves well to this look. Just make sure the furniture is solid wood. Pieces that have a veneered surface will not give the same effect.

Step 1 - Prepare the Surface

Make sure the surface you are going to work with is clean. This can be achieved by washing with warm, soapy water.  Allow it to dry thoroughly. If there are any rough places you don't like or wobbly legs, etc., now is the time to fix them. Remove any drawers and associated hardware.

Step 2 – Rub on Wax

If you like the look of cracking or peeling paint, this can be achieved in a couple of ways. Before you put on your paint, rub the wax candle here and there on your piece of furniture, wherever you want cracking or peeling. The paint will roll and peel where the wax has been applied.

Step 3 - Paint

Most times a flat paint or satin type paint is used, as high gloss isn't the look most want to achieve. Put a good coat of this paint on your piece and allow it to dry.

The only exception to this procedure is if you want a two tone look. This will mean one color on the first coat and then a different color for the second coat with the thought in mind you will take some of the top coat off in places to give a worn look.

Step 4 - Distress the Surface

After the paint is dry, whether you used the one or two coat method, it’s time to get the aged or distressed look. This can be a lot of fun to do. Think about your piece and consider where the wear on it would be if it had been used for generations. On a chair, most wear would be on the edge of the arms and edge of the seat, on a chest of drawers, the front edge and around the knobs or handles. Lightly rub away the paint in these areas with your sand paper or steel wool. Do this until you achieve the look you like.

You can also make gouges in the surface with the screwdriver, a nail, or chain. When you have the look you like, rub tinted wax into these areas to darken them.

TIP: Doityourself’s painting consultant Pam Estabrooke, of ProTect Painters, suggests, “A stain marker is also an option for filling in these areas or adding dark accents into cracks and crevices. It gives you an accent color with the control of a marker.”

Step 5 – Peel the Paint

You can get even more peeling if you use the heat gun on a low setting over the entire piece of furniture. This technique will work on both the one and two color painting techniques. Finish off your project with a coat or two of matt or satin polycrylic to seal the paint and the “wear.”

Pam Estabrooke, district manager of ProTect Painters, contributed to this article.