In this tutorial I’ll show you how to naturally age new wood with vinegar and steel wool. In just a couple of minutes, new wood will look old, gray and weathered like old barn wood.
You’ll need:
- strong black tea brew
- DIY iron liquor
Make a strong black tea solution: Steep 1 tbsp black tea leaves in 250ml boiling water for 5 minutes. Black tea contains tannin. Tannin reacts with iron producing a gray to black wood stain. If you’re using tannin-rich wood, such as oak, it’s not necessary to paint the wood with tea, just paint the wood with iron liquor.
Paint the wood with the strong tea solution.
Then paint the wood with DIY iron liquor. Just after some seconds the wood begins to turn black.
Strong tea + iron liquor makes wood very black, almost like charred wood. While weak tea + iron liquor makes wood rather brown than black or gray.
And it also depends on the type of wood: some wood turns more brown and some turns more gray.
Freshly stained wood looks black and streaky, but once the wood is dry, it looks like weathered wood: gray and no longer streaky.
As soon as the wood is dry, you can lightly sand the stained wood again.
I used the distressed and stained wood to make a picture frame for a heart shaped river rock.
What a great tutorial! Thank you for sharing @Vintage Charm!
Thank you.
What an incredible difference this treatment makes! I have a lot of leftover wood that I could use this on. Thanks for sharing! 🙂 Lisa
Yes, it’s amazing that just some steel wool, vinegar and tea turns new wood into old barn wood. 🙂
This is great. I need to try this. Thanks for sharing at #HomeMattersParty
Thanks.
Such a lovely and well put together tutorial. Thanks a ton, we’ll definitely be trying it out on our pallet stock pile
Thank you so much. 🙂
What great info! Thanks for sharing at Funtastic Friday!
Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for this tutorial. I need to try this! Thanks for sharing at To Grandmas House We Go!
Thank you. 🙂 It’s really easy to stain wood with tea and iron liquor.