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Monday, June 26, 2017

Dollhouse barn wood weathered effect

My first plan was to have my Cracker style 1930s house with white siding but then I decided to switch things up a bit and have it more weathered. I was online a few months ago looking at weathering wood videos for a different reason and thought this technique was so cool I decided to incorporate it into this project.

If you wan to learn more, then just research weathered wood with vinegar online. Lots of videos will pop up. Basically you soak steel wool in vinegar for 24 hours, steep a bunch of tea bags and then brush the tea onto your wood. After it is fairly dry you brush the vinegar on and wait.
I emphasize "wait". Some wood was quick to change and others took hours. I added another layer to the stubborn ones too soon and it was too dark in the end.


The house is on it's back. There will be a long porch roof attached to the seam of siding. Door and windows have not been trimmed out here just yet.


You can sand and score the "weathered" wood with the side of a knife blade  to add more wear too.
I used a jigsaw blade on its side and at an angle to have close-together scratches.
Below is a close up. I will be adding trim to cover each vertical seam.


Here are some more photos showing the start of my build.




Making the stair hole. The same way I made window holes.





Here is a photo so far. Note that this was taken with the house on it's side while the top side was drying with books on it. Just incase you get vertigo.




Aging the windows
I think I have figured out why this effect never worked for me before now. Paint choice!
I used The FolkArt after I used the Ceramcoat paint to have a lighter area and it barely did anything.
Ceramcoat worked beautifully. So if you have trouble with the crackle medium try a different brand of paint.



 I have noticed the thiner the coats of crackling medium the finer the cracks.


I will be posting more about this build as I go on this blog site.

6 comments:

  1. This is looking awesome! I am so impressed with your jig saw skills - I can't seem to cut a straight line to save my life, even with a fence. The crackling looks amazing, too!

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    1. Thx Jodi. You know there are two tricks to help train your cutting eye. You can use blue tape along the cutting line. Or you can figure out where the edge of your saw lies when the blade it on your cut line and nail in a "rail" scrap piece of wood. Then your saw will run along that rail as a guide and keep your cut straight. I do this for longer cuts. Trust me, I had to keep going back in to even out the window holes. :)

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  2. Ooooh I really like the effect of the aged wood and of course the crackled paint on the windows! I can see that this build is going to be a Favorite! :D

    elizabeth

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  3. The weathered wood effect that I'm familiar with, only uses vinegar & steel wool & results in a silver grey colour, much like bare wood that has been exposed to the elements. Adding tea/coffee is probably what made it too dark imho. You also need to ensure that all of your wood is from the same source. Different woods absorb the vinegar/steel wool stain in different ways - I've seen coffee stir sticks & jumbo popsicle sticks stained together, using the same batch of stain, but they each turned starkly different colours.

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