testing paint finishes.

The other frame I've been working on (you can see the two others here) is for a surfboard print I bought for my bedroom. Three years ago. Which is kind of embarassing.

I used a couple of rustic pine 1x2 furring strips, and this plan from Knock-Off Wood (which is a crazy-inspiring site, and one of the main reasons I wanted to buy a nailer and compressor for my birthday).

So - this was one of those frustrating projects where nothing seeemed to go right. I won't go in to the details, except to say that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the plans - I just made several mistakes. Luckily, 1x2s are really cheap - and now I have scraps for future projects (or even more, smaller frames).

The tricky part has been deciding on what finish I want to use. I knew I wanted something basically white and rustic - but not barn rustic, more beach rustic. I looked at a lot of information online and came up with a few different possibilities, but couldn't decide which to try. Until it occurred to me to actually test them one of those scrap pieces of wood. (I know, sometimes my problem-solving abilities astound even me).

So, here are the options:

By the way, these are a lot less subtle in person. At least, I think so.

1. A whitewash finish, using watered-down white primer (using the instructions here)
2. A dark stain, followed by a coat of white paint on top and sanded off
3. A coat of white paint, distressed, then dark stain on top as a kind of glaze 

Option 2 didn't really work the way I expected. I started by applying the stain, letting it sit for a while, then wiping it off. After a couple more hours, I rubbed the edge of a candle along the some of the edges (I read that somewhere as a trick for distressing - the paint isn't supposed to adhere to the candle wax, meaning those are the areas that are easily sanded off). Then, I added a couple of coats of white paint. Once everything was dry, I started sanding the edges - and the stain sanded right off, too. Which wasn't really the look I was going for. 

I liked the results of option 3, but when I held my test board up in my room with the print, I didn't really like it. I have another project in mind where I think this finish will look great. (To do this, I applied two coats of white paint, sanded off the corners, then painted on a bit of stain and wiped it immediately off almost right away.)

I liked option 1 the best - so that's what I decided to go with. I'm still not totally sold on it - the color is a little too white, I think, especially with everything else in the room. But I'm going to live it for a while until I decide for if I want to change it. At least its finally hanging up in my bedroom!