Color Washing the Barn Door

One of my favorite projects to date has been our Dutch barn door.   Anyone who sees it loves it (and I am not just saying that cuz I love it)!   A Dutch door is just so whimsical, then add the barn door styling and it is just awesome!  But one thing has bothered me.  After I originally stained it, I was pleased but not perfectly happy with the color.  (which is in case you are wondering-  Minwax Waterbased Wood Stain, tinted in  Charcoal Grey)

I was going for a look of naturally weathered wood but ours was just too blue for my taste.  So when I decided to update the wall where the dutch door is located for the clock project.   It was the perfect time to face re-coloring the door. 

In our Texas house,  I painted the doors black and I LOVED it – with a passion!  So I knew the moment I moved into this house that the doors would be painted at least some color.  I finally settled on something  like a charcoal grey- dark but not black. (hence when I picked out the charcoal grey color above)  

I picked up a gallon of  #7069 Iron Ore from Sherwin William, Emerald line in Satin.  (last time my doors were semi gloss.  I didn’t’ love that much sheen)  Since I am painting all the doors this color, I wanted the barn door to be the same tones, but I also still wanted to be able to see the wood grain.  

Okay, but a paint is not a stain, right?  Right.  HOWEVER, my sister taught me while doing a craft like 8 years ago (thanks Noelle!)that you can wash something with paint.  That way you still see the wood grain, but you get the color of the paint.   This may not be news to you, but it works really well if you’ve never tried it.  So if it is news to you I will show you how I did it on our door.  

 Color Washing Paint Technique

1.  Mix or shake your paint.

2.  Take a wet washcloth (not dripping but not TOO wrung out) and dip it into a tiny bit of paint.  (I used the lid of my can of paint for this, but you can use a plate or paint tray, you need very little paint) the goal is to not have that much paint on the rag.

3. With a dry paint brush, apply a small amount of paint to a board.  Be sure to work in very small sections or one continuous board that you can wipe down immediately, so it doesn’t dry out before you can work on each area.   See below  how the dry brush doesn’t coat the whole piece just leaves a quick layer of color on the board (sorry about the blurriness of the shot!)

4. Now take your wet wash cloth and wipe the paint in the direction of the grain, to a more uniform finish.

 5.  Continue working in small sections until you are done.  Remember you can always darken a piece but it is hard to take color off as easily, especially once it is dry.  So keep your layers of paint on the light side!

In the picture above the color washed areas don’t look too striking, but in the picture below  you can see it made a HUGE difference in the overall color of the door.  No more blue!  Hip hip hooray!

To finish up the wall, I painted the other door two “solid” coats of the Iron Ore color.  They look great together!  A match made in heaven!

 Wanna see the final updated door?  I thought so!

What do you think of this technique?  Have you tried it?  Tell me what you think!  If you like this post, please consider pinning it, I’d be super thankful!

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