Whitewash Weather

The view from our balcony

The weather this weekend has been quite miserable, which has suited me  perfectly as The Boyfriend and I have created a list of 35 things we need to get done to our house before the year is up. The list has everything from the very simple (buy more big wine glasses) to the far more extreme (convert the spare room into a creative workspace). And this weekend we got going on our list.

We are redoing our spare room into a space where I can blog, do my DIY and get messy, and also a space where The Boyfriend can sit down with good music and edit his surf footage (He received a gopro for his birthday so he can now be seen in the water with it on his board, or strapped to my old mop pole for better angles...)

We are building a work desk in the room and wanted to make the desk a space where I can mess without making the desk look damaged, so we decided a good whitewashing will create a look that will actually be enhanced by drops of glue and splatters of paint.

Whitewashing Wood

What you need:

• Wood
• Sandpaper and sandpaper block
• White water based paint
• Water
• Varnish / sealant
• Paintbrush
• Mixing container
• Old rags

Before you can start with the painting you will need to first prep your wood. Using the sandpaper sand the wood down to remove any old varnish / paint. Be sure to wipe the wood down afterwards as you don't want any dust to be there when you paint.

Sand the wood

Once the wood is sanded you need to create your whitewash. Mix 2 parts paint to 1 part water. That's it. No funny tricks here. 

Paint on the whitewash in small sections

Working in small sections, paint your wood, and then wipe the excess paint off. Whitewash dries pretty quickly so wipe as you go.

Wipe off excess paint

Once the whitwash has dried, apply a second layer if necessary. Once this layer is also dry, get your sandpaper and start sanding where the wood would naturally weather, so on the corners and raised areas. This adds the texture and worn look.

Sand the wood again to age it

Finally, once you wood is looking well old, slap on a layer of sealant / clear varnish to protect the wood.

Varnish wood

Once we have finished our workspace I promise to post pictures of the final product...