DIY: How to Distress Your Kitchen Cabinets

DIY: How to Distress Your Kitchen Cabinets - Looking for that classy antique look in your kitchen? Distressing your cabinets into antique cabinets is a great way to go if you are designing or remodeling your kitchen. It will give the entire room an elegant and chic feel to it that draws attention all over and makes it a great place to spend time baking. If the cabinets are already painted the color you like and are ready to begin distressing with the natural color beneath showing through, then you won't need any extra paint. If you are working with plain cabinets and would like a certain color to show through the distressed areas, you will need to buy the colors you want.

Materials:

- Paint (outer color and color shown in worn spots)
- Sand paper
- Hammer, padlock, keys
- Varnish
- Paintbrush
- Drill

To begin, select the color that you would like to shine through the distressed and worn areas of your antique cabinets. If you would like natural wood color to come through underneath the top coat, you won't need to paint a base color. Begin by painting your cabinets any base color that you are hoping to see through the distressed areas. You will need to let the antique cabinets dry for at least 12 hours before you continue.

The next step is to select the outer color. Your antique cabinets will be primarily this color, with small bits of your base coat showing through. If you don't have any ideas for an antique distressed cabinet look, it would be a good idea to look through some home magazines and get a feel for what you are looking for. A fashionable way to distress kitchen cabinets into antique cabinets is to paint them white, and then allow the wood's natural color to shine through when distressed.

You now have painted a base color and an outer color. As before, the outer layer will need to dry for at least 12 hours. Onto the exciting part of distressing kitchen cabinets! At this point, you will need to use your creativity to create wear marks, scratches, dings, and nicks in various places on the antique cabinets. If you don't know where to start, again get some reference ideas by looking through magazines. Sand paper works well for sanding "worn areas" around knobs. Also be sure to sand any sharp edges into more rounded ones that look like they have been used and touched for decades. Any set of keys can be used to create deep scratches, and a small drill for authentic wormholes in your antique cabinets. Striking the padlock against random areas on the cabinets is a good way to create dents and dings that look true to antique cabinets.

When you have finished distressing your kitchen cabinets into antique cabinets, you may want to cover each cabinet with a protective varnish. This will protect the wood and make the look last longer, as well as lightly darken any bare wood areas to give the cabinets a more authentic look. Enjoy your new antique cabinets.