Sunday, July 8, 2012

Make Your Own Barn Wood Stain

This is a great example of all things being connected in some way...
  My husband came across this on a message board for hot rods (he reads frequently) where people share all kinds of info with each other.
 The guy who shared it used this to stain some wood for the bed of his truck because he wanted the wood to look like old barn wood. 
And it's SIMPLE--
Vinegar (I used white but I've seen in on pinterest with apple cider vinegar)
Steel wool torn up into pieces
 I don't think the amounts of either really matter but I used about 1/2 of the piece of steel wool and  probably about 1 cup of vinegar.
 He said to let it sit overnight --which is what I did.  The longer you let it sit the darker it gets...
 This was after 2 nights of soaking...the top of the wood is the vinegar stain the bottom half is our walnut stain we used on our dinning room table.
 This is in natural light (vinegar on the right, walnut stain on the left) and that's our treated lumber side steps it's sitting on....just for comparison....
 This is a piece of hard maple and it's pretty smooth...
 I think if you used this on some rough lumber or pallet wood you could get a really nice look....
 I also was expecting the liquid itself to turn dark, but that didn't really happen until a couple of days later.  And the steel wool didn't really disintegrate either, but it darkens the wood as soon as you put it on..
A very cool little trick for getting an aged look on wood that's brand new...

6 comments:

  1. Smarty pants!! How cool! Did you use a brush or rag to put it on or the steel wool??

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    1. I used a rag since I was just messing around. But it's watery so that works good. Isn't it great???? So simple and easy and it would give a really great look to some rough lumber.....

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  3. You caught my eye with not the stain so much, but the beautiful colorful bowls sitting next to it. The pyrex ones are very collectible around here, although I sometimes find one or two here and there and make up a set. Love them.

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    1. Thanks Helen! I love the colors too...The red one was my first purchase and the green one with the two spouts was a $2 Goodwill find. There are a couple of vendors that specifically sell the pyrex but their prices are usually higher. I try to just look around when we flea market and buy them individually too. I saw a full set of the polka dotted ones this week-end!!!

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