DIY Natural Wood Stain

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 09:00:36 +0000

For a few years now I have been making my own DIY Natural Wood Stain for some of my wood projects. When it comes to DIY there are tons of projects, tricks, and tips out there. It’s about finding the thing to use when you need to use it. I love dark stained wood. In most instances I am more than happy with some dark Minwax wood stain to use on my wood. However, there are times when I want a more weathered natural look. Enter DIY Natural Wood Stain.

To make this DIY stain you only need three things:

Apple Cider Vinegar

Steel Wool

Glass Container

Directions: Place steel wool into glass container, fill glass container with vinegar, place lid back on jar, and let it sit for at least 24 hours.

Rarely do I use a whole jar of natural wood stain in one project. So I end up leaving a jar constantly lying around. When one jar starts getting low I make up another one so I always have stain on hand.

The stain is completely liquid so I use foam brushes to apply it to the wood, but you can pretty much use any kind of brush. The foam brushes adsorb the liquid and then I just paint it on. If your wondering what the stain looks like, take a look at this scrap piece of wood. The dark side is where I applied the natural wood stain and the light side is the untreated side.

It seems that this stain works best on old or untreated wood. Treated wood seems to “block” out most of the staining power. I find it most useful when I’m working with salvaged wood. Either when I want to make it darker or when I need to plain the wood (to rid it of yuck) and I need to return some of the aged look to the wood. With treated wood it gives it sort of a grayish light stain. Which still makes the wood look older and aged a bit, just not maybe as dark as you may want.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some projects that I have completed with my DIY Natural Wood Stain……

Little Farm Table

DIY Salvaged Wood Tool Box

Broken Coffee Table Rescue

What would you make with your own DIY Natural Wood Stain?

DIY Salvaged Wood Toolbox

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:00:00 +0000

One of the biggest reasons that I started blogging and crafting was upcycling. I get such satisfaction turning discarded items into new functional and beautiful items. Sometimes I acquire items that I KNOW I will find the perfect purpose for, at some point. There are times it takes me awhile to figure out exactly what I will do with the items I have found.

For instance, lets say you used part of a crib to make a bench and there were left over pieces. What would you do with them? Well if you were me you would let them sit in your garage for a year and a half getting cobwebby!

I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of these beautiful spindles, but I didn’t know what I would do with the less desirable crib pieces. Then one day it hit me. I decided to use the spindles and some old fence wood and turn them into a DIY Salvaged Wood Toolbox.

The first thing I did was, very sweetly ask my hubby to plane down some of the wood and cut it to the sizes that I needed. The wood pieces measure:

2 x 18in long for the side pieces

1 x 16in for the bottom piece

2 x 10in for the end pieces

1 x 16in for the handle.

We put the box together using screws, which we learned wasn’t the best idea. The screws made the old wood split just a bit here and there. We made some more of these and ended up breaking out the big ole scary nail gun. It worked SO much better!!!

I decided to use the same steel wool and vinegar technique as I did on my Little Farm Table. Can I just tell you how much I LOVE this application! No chemicals and beautiful dark wood results! I decided to paint the spindle handle Heirloom White and gave it some good distressing.

Using some small nails I attached the spindle handle to the wood box.

Look at all that rustic goodness!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen old wood toolboxes and drooled over them. Now I’m drooling over my very own!!!

Doesn’t that vinegar stain do an amazing job? You still see all the flaws and character in the old wood, but that dark color is fabulous!!!

I think I found the PERFECT use for those disguarded spindles!! Can’t wait to make more of these for my booth!!!

I filled the wood toolbox with three little plants. Doesn’t it all look so perfect???

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While your here, why don’t you pop over and check out the party?

Time to Shine is happening now and there are some amazing things already linked up!!!

salvaged wood – A Diamond in the Stuff

DIY Natural Wood Stain

DIY Salvaged Wood Toolbox