weathered wood bars

things have gotten really busy in my garage as my buddy and i’ve been building and painting up a storm.

ok, fine. he’s been building.

and i’ve been painting…and painting…and painting….

what you’re looking at here are a few rolling bars. perfect for any type of party.

but as y’all know, while i love wood. i really love distressed and rustic-looking wood.

a lot of folks build with pallets, but we find that they’re really hard to pull apart. also, when i don’t know what chemicals have been used to treat a pallet, i don’t want to use it in homes or where food may be served. 

so, we take new wood and make it look old. you can see the rough hewn on the picture below. we take the wood and put it through backward on one of the machines to give this really rough surface. i love how the grooves catch all the different stains and paint layers and creates a really old wood look.

for these bars, i used Modern Masters Dead Flat on the tops. this product allows for an absolute matte finish that sometimes you don’t even know if there’s a varnish on your wood. i recommend a 2-3 coats if you’re planning on using it on a dining table or furniture that has high traffic with liquids.  

i’m really pleased with how this entire collection turned out. we built 2 bars, 6 coffee tables, and 6 family style dining tables.

dreamy. though the neighbors wondered why i was painting pianos in the driveway.  😉

here’s the process…i started with Minwax Dark Walnut that i diluted with mineral spirits. i like to make it very watery so that it goes on quickly on raw wood. otherwise, you’re there for days as the untreated wood soaks in every last drop of the stain.

then, with a mix of very watery Annie Sloan Pure White + Paris Gray + water else i’ve got laying about, i use a large Annie Sloan brush, i dry brush the paint over the stain. because chalk paint adheres to just about everything without the need to sand or strip, this works very nicely to give a very very light coat of grayish white over the dark. and in places where the stain’s oil separates form the paint, even better to produce an awesome layered look. then i varnished the horizontal surfaces and called it a day.

i’ve said it before, and i’ll say it again…i’m sort of bummed i got married before Pinterest hit the scene.  my wedding would’ve been totally different…and probably a lot like this awesome Napa wedding.

but no one ever said you can’t have a fun anniversary party in a barn, right?! 🙂