A little Distressing How To

I have had sooo many questions asking "how do you get that old distressed look on your furniture?"

Well, because I loooooove you so, so, SO much I think I'll share how I do it!

Last week I found these puppies at the local Thrift Store for $5 bucks a pop:

...Just in case you thought I was exaggerating:

I began by lightly sanding the chairs or whatever piece of furniture I am distressing:

Wipe down the furniture with a damp cloth and then spray paint (I use gloss) with one good coat of paint (You only need ONE coat since you will be distressing it anyways... the more coats, the more sanding you will have to do... keep it simple!.. O.N.E. coat of paint!)

Let the chairs dry really, REALLY well. I let mine dry overnight (which is so hard for me to do because I want everything done umm pretty much... yesterday. But trust me, if you don't wait until the paint is completely dry then the paint will clump and peel which = u.g.l.y.) So once again... LET THE PAINT DRY and THEN sand it! This is like an art form. You have to play around with different pressure, motions, etc to get the "look" you want. I use Ross's air compressor and sanding pad since I do this so often, but if you are just doing a piece or two for your house then you can do it by hand. I recommend a 200 or higher grit sand paper since you are just knocking off a VERY thin coat of paint in certain spots.

By the way, don't I look super cute, trendy and well dressed for the occasion?! ...Such a fashionista!

Continue to sand, sand and sand some more until the whole piece of furniture is completely distressed:

Wipe down with a damp cloth and marvel over your new "old" piece of furniture! (If you want to, then you can paint a top coat of Polyacrylic to protect and seal the furniture. I did this for a table once because we used it all the time, but for the distressed look, it doesn't really matter if it gets a little beat up...if anything, it adds even more character!)

I love these blue chairs.

My favorite part about the "distressed" look is that each peice of furniture is different.

I think these chairs will be perfect in my new... dining room! 

What?

I forgot to tell you that I decided this weekend to completely re-do our dining room?! Yep. I did.
And I cannot wait to share with you!

Stay tuned!