The craze around the aged looking, grey toned wood found at Restoration hardware (featured in their table above) has led to the creation of the term “Restoration Hardware Look.” It’s sent chalk paint addicts everywhere to their drawing boards trying to achieve the look without the Restoration Hardware price tag. Because it’s been in such high demand, we decided to break down step by step, one of many different methods to achieve this look

1. Cover your piece in two coats of Annie Sloan’s French linen Chalk paint. Remember that it is always better to paint in lighter layers for a more even coverage and to avoid drips. It’s best to be haphazard in the application of the paint, allowing your brush strokes to move in many different directions.
2. The second step is to apply a wash of graphite directly over the French linen paint. You do this by adding water to a small amount of paint, to achieve a translucent finish. The more water you add, the lighter the wash and final product will be. We chose graphite to make the final product have more of a grey tone, but if you wanted it to look more brown, try using Honfleur for this step instead!
3. Once that has dried, which may take longer than usual because of the water added, it’s time to wax. We used the white wax and applied it directly to our sample board, without any clear wax.
4. This last step is totally optional. We decided we liked the look of the white wax settling in to the brush strokes left from painting in many different directions. The only problem was, we wanted more of it. So we used a dry brushing technique and a touch of old white paint to add a bit more of the bleaching/aging effect to our board. You may not feel you need to do this though!

What do you think of the final look? There are so many different methods for achieving this finish and every time you do it, it might look just a little different. We think thats part of the fun! Stop in today and grab your materials or order them online here.

Happy Painting!