{Distressing with Vaseline and Cabinet Scrapers}

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distressing tech 003

My very favorite distressing technique with furniture, is the look of chippy paint.  And although i love that look, i didnt exactly know how to go about it.  I have read tons of things online and tried lots of little tricks but nothing really turned out good.

I have heard about the vaseline trick before, so i decided to give it a try (they say you can also use candles for this).  Just take a putty knife, or anything really (on some spots i just used my fingers) and put it on parts where i didnt want the paint to stick.  I just put a layer on – nothing perfect – just willy nilly like :)

Then, paint as usual.  After the paint was dry, i just took a sanding block and rubbed off where the vaseline was.  I could see where it was at because the spots with the vaseline were a little bit raised up.  The vaseline just made the paint rub right off.  So easy and i love the look.

**this cabinet had dark wood already which is what i wanted to show  through.  You could easily paint it your first color, apply the vaseline and then paint your top color and then when you rubbed off the vaseline you would get the 1st layer of paint showing through**

white hutch finished 008

The next trick that i tried was scraping the paint off with a cabinet scraper.  I really liked distressing this way – this is the exact look that i have been trying to do and cant wait to play around with it more in the future.

I bought these scrapers @ Woodcraft for like $20 – i think it came with 4 or 5 of them.  You just have to sharpen the edge and then you rub it on the furniture and it scrapes the paint off.  You can take off a little or a lot – just play around with it. 

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This is the look i got on one of the places on the furniture with the scraper…some spots i went heavier, some lighter…

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Im sure you could also do this with a razor blade – maybe a little more dangerous in case it slips!!  I liked how big the scraper was – the one that i used was the rectangle one, about 5x2ish

So, here is the cabinet i just finished before…and can i just say that this cabinet was sold to the sweetest girl!  She loved it and that makes me love what i “do” – i get so excited when people love their new furniture :)

blue furniture march 2011 007

And after…painted with Valspar Ultra White in a semi-gloss and then heavily distressed

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Cabinet glass was busted out and replaced with chicken wire that was painted black

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The top distressing part was done with the cabinet scraper, the bottom one on the corner was done with vaseline. 

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white hutch finished 010

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Re-cap.  My new favorite distressing technique is my cabinet scraper, then i will for sure be using the vaseline trick as well, and of course i cant stop using my 60 grit sanding block :)

Whats your favorite way to distress furniture?  Anyone have a fun way to get the chippy paint look?  I would LOVE to know !