Part 1: Whitewash Plank Walls
As I mentioned on Friday, we added one more project onto our already lengthy
basement To Do list. Call us crazy, but we decided to create our own plank
walls and we decided to whitewash them too. Holy spontaneous, spur of the
moment decision! I'll show you Part 1 today and tomorrow you'll see how the
walls are looking. By the way, they're AWESOME.
Update: click over to Part II to see how the whitewash wood plank wall turned out!
How To Whitewash Wood
First, we had to decide what material we were going to use for the planks. We settled on birch plywood (but more on that tomorrow!). To test out our whitewash technique, we used a 2'x2' birch plywood from The Home Depot and divided it into four sections using painters tape.
The other materials we used for our test: a container for mixing the whitewash, paint (we used our wall paint - ironically called Whitewash White from Para Paints), a rag, and a brush.
We mixed up the whitewash using 2 parts latex paint to 1 part water. Stir
well.
The first technique we tested was the wiped brush. Dip the brush
in the whitewash. Wipe off the excess on a rag. Brush whitewash onto your board.
Then we tried the rag off technique. Dip your brush in the whitewash.
Brush whitewash onto the board. Take a rag and wipe in circular motions
across the board to take off the excess.
We also tried two other samples: using undiluted paint ragged off; and the
ragged off technique but with two coats. Here's the results:
Whitewash Techniques
Its hard to tell but there were definite differences between the samples:
We decided to go with the rag off 2 coat technique. Then we realized we had 72 planks to whitewash and just about killed ourselves doing it. Tune in tomorrow to see how it all turned out!
- The wiped brush sample had visible brush strokes. The whitewash wasn't even, with some spots more opaque than others
- The no dilution sample was uneven as well. The edges (where the whitewash met the painters tape) were more opaque. Since the paint wasn't diluted, it dried quickly and was harder to rag off.
- The rag off 1 coat sample was nice and even. There were no brush strokes and the body and edges of the sample had nice even coating. You could really see the grain of the wood beneath.
- The rag off 2 coat sample was also nice and even. The second coat muted the grain of the wood though it was still visible.
We decided to go with the rag off 2 coat technique. Then we realized we had 72 planks to whitewash and just about killed ourselves doing it. Tune in tomorrow to see how it all turned out!
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