Armoire With a Weathered Wood Finish

This is what it looked like before.

Strip The Finish

The first step is to completely strip off the old finish using a safe stripping product/method that you feel would work best for you.

Make sure to strictly follow the instructions on the label.

Sand The Wood

Once the wood is completely stripped, and all the stripper is completely removed, sand everything down to the raw wood.

Our armoire still had quite a bit of red paint left deep in the wood so we needed to bleach it.

Bleach The Wood

Lighten the wood using a safe bleaching product/method of your choice. Strictly follow the instructions on the label.

Apply Accelerating Stain

This is where the magic happens!

Once we got all the sanding dust off, it was time for the weathered wood accelerator.

It doesn't really go on like regular stain. It’s really thin — like water. And it starts to work as soon as it hits the wood. You need to brush it on evenly with the grain. Don’t let it pool or run. We had to work really fast to get it on evenly. Read and follow the label directions.

After you put it on, it starts to make the wood look gray

Like it’s been out in the weather for years

And it continues to darken a little more over time unless you put a finish over it

We let ours sit for about 5 days and this is the color we ended up with.

Then we just put a coat of clear wax over it and we were done.

I just love the way it turned out!