How to Give Barn Siding a Weathered Look
Old barns have a timeless appeal, much of which is due to the weathered beauty of old barn boards. Whether painted and then abused by the weather or left to turn gray in the sun and the rain, barn boards only really look right once they've been in place a while. Unfortunately, weathered barn siding sometimes weathers to the point of rotting and requires replacement. If you don't want to wait the years it would take for your siding to gain a weathered look again, there are ways to mimic the appearance of both painted and unpainted old barn boards. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Artificially Aging Wood
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Rip up a large piece of steel wool into smaller bits and place them in a jar.
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Fill the jar with enough white vinegar to cover the steel wool and leave it to sit overnight. The vinegar reacts with the steel, partially dissolving it to create an iron-laced solution.
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Fill a second jar with boiling water and immerse a black teabag in it. The exact type of tea doesn't matter; all black tea blends have the necessary tannins in them that will help stain the wood.
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Paint bare pine or fir siding boards with the tea by dipping a brush into the tea jar and spreading the tea evenly over the boards. Let the tea dry.
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Paint the boards with the vinegar and steel solution. Their color will immediately start to change to a weathered gray. Allow the wood to sit for 10 to 30 minutes, then sand it down if you need to lighten the shade.
Painting a Distressed Finish
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Spread paste wax on a rag and cover the barn boards with a thin and uniform layer. Use the rag to remove any excess wax and spread it on the next board. Do not attempt to polish or buff the wax. Let it dry for an hour.
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Paint the waxed boards in a color that matches the existing barn boards (or just a color that appeals to you, if you are replacing all of them or building new). Full coverage isn't necessary, since you'll be sanding some of the paint off. To make the sanding process easier, you can paint with a specially formulated distressing glaze instead of normal paint.
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Rub the boards with 100-grit sandpaper to expose some of the wood beneath the paint/glaze layer. If you have previously aged the wood with tea and vinegar, it will look as if it has been exposed to the elements for some time.
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Hammer the weathered siding up to the outside of the barn and let the sun, rain, and wind fade it further toward an authentic look.
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Tips & Warnings
The sanding will be quite quick if done on paint applied over wax. Skipping the wax step will make for much harder sanding, but will make for a more durable finish.
References
- Photo Credit old barn image by SSGuess from Fotolia.com
