Stenciling Patio Pavers with Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish

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Stenciling Patio Pavers with
Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish Stain

The Vision

Stenciling Patio Pavers – Another Great Use for Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish

I have this patio envisioned in my head. It’s about 15’x20′ and made of Arizona flagstone with all its beautiful color variations. There will be a 2 ft high stone retaining wall and that will be topped by bluestone slabs for sitting and showcasing plants. Behind that is a wall of 3 ft tall boxwood or similar shrub. This envisioned patio is #1 on my wish list. Unfortunately, it’s about #8 on the priority list. But I definitely needed something inexpensive and fairly easy to create that would serve until my dream patio can be built.

Let the Games Begin

My mind went to Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish and how it stains just about everything it contacts including concrete, cement and stone. There is something in the stone that reacts with the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish and turns it the color of spicy brown mustard. I have no idea what but I knew the color would not wash off like paint. And then I realized if I could use a stencil with the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish I might be able to create something unique at a cost that was fairly inexpensive. Soon my backyard became a research project filled with different stenciled patio pavers and various watered down dilutions of the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish. The stenciled pavers were all over the yard like some bizarre game.

Some of the older pavers I turned over and used for experimentation and some ended up in the patio along with newly purchased cement pavers. All were purchased from Home Depot but I see them at Lowes and Wal-mart. They come in different base colors and I chose the lightest, whitest ones. The cost is about $1.89 per paver for a 12″x12″.

I spent the next 3 days testing and stencilling patio pavers. After trying numerous stencil designs, I settled on this one although Amazon has a quite a selection of great Tile Stencils Available on Amazon. Choose one to fit your paver size. Some go all the way to the edge and are suppose to match up with the next paver. The one I chose allowed me to add a border and it had a cottagey/vintage vibe which I liked.

The Hard Part

Since there had already been pavers down and the area was somewhat level, I did not have to dig into the ground or put down gravel, etc. before replacing the pavers. Nor did I use a level (which I regret). I did have sand on hand to help get an “eyeball” level. After all, I did not want a big project or a lot of expense – just a fairly quick intermittent solution until my “Dream Patio”.

I used sand purchased from H. Depot specifically for pavers and drove it into the seams with a stiff brush. I did this for a few days as the sand kept settling and more was needed.

And finally, once the sand had settled, I used Miracle Sealants H20 Plus Penetrating Sealer to give the stenciled patio pavers a waterproof topcoat that would help deter stains. If you have ever used similar pavers, you know that they stain rather easily especially if you use flower pots. I was impressed by how well the sealant worked.

Final Project

The pavers are deliberately different shades of the same color. The darker ones were done with the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish at full strength (1 packet and 1 Cup of water – there are 2 packets per Single Pak). And then I started adding an additional Cup of water (1 packet and 2 Cups of water) and finally 3 Cups of water. Three cups of water ended up being too pale for me. I like the ultimate translucent, watercolor look achieved. This technique does not give you “fine” lines. In my creative mind, I likened the look to some ancient Grecian tile floor uncovered in an archeological dig. It’s been worn and weathered and has tons of character. Perfect for a shabby chic or cottage style garden.

And I started getting ideas for stenciling patio pavers and the different ways I could use them throughout the garden. More on those later in another blog.

Total Cost for Stenciled Patio Pavers using Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish

The total cost is about $150.00 for a paved patio approximately 3′ x 6′ and that included about $75.00 for 18 pavers from Home Depot; $20 for a 12″x12″ stencil; $12.99 for the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish; $4.89 bag of paver sand; $32.00 waterproof topcoat sealant and a fun day sitting in the garden stenciling patio pavers.

Make a Whimsical Driftwood Birdhouse

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How to Make a Whimsical Driftwood Birdhouse

Simple tutorial will show you how to make a whimsical driftwood birdhouse for indoor or outdoor use. Add charm and character to your garden with a whimsical driftwood birdhouse you make yourself.

Supplies

Driftwood pieces – 5-12″ round and flat plus assortment of other pieces. If you need driftwood pieces, we have driftwood in stock. 2-6″ pieces or 5-12″ pieces.
18 oz. oatmeal carton or similar cardboard carton
Titebond WW30 or WW60 (for use with HiPur Adhesive Applicator) or Ad-Tech Wood Glue Sticks or All Temperature Wood Stik (look for glue sticks that will hold up in all temperatures)
Heat Gun such as HiPur Adhesive Applicator by Stienel or Professional Glue Gun
wooden stand (optional)
wooden round 5″ – 8″ (optional)

I used an 18 oz. oatmeal box but pretty much any similar cardboard box, round or square, will work. Remove the advertising so you just have the brown cardboard.

Cut out a hole for the door and any additional “windows” you might want.

Then just fit and glue your pieces around your form. You can use flat or round, long or short – just cover your form.

Once the form is covered on the sides, you can start on the top. I wanted mine to be off-centered and longer on one side which would give it a more whimsical look so you can see I started with a long piece on one side propped up by a shorter piece on the other. From there I just started filling in areas. It’s like a puzzle where you find the best pieces to fit and pieces that will add some character here and there.

Here is a view from the back. Once again, I just started layering smaller, flatter pieces on the roof until I had it completely covered.

In the front top I added a post that protruded out so the birds would have a perch and other little unique pieces that just fit well on the top. I then added a “front porch” so to speak and a piece on the right that ended up looking almost like a handle. I found a unique driftwood piece that was like a curly little pig’s tail and added that coming down from the top and one more piece to balance the left side and I was finished with my whimsical little birdhouse. It was hard not to keep going by adding more little pieces here and there.

The final thing I did was use the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish on the base so it would look more weathered. You can see the difference in the very top picture where it blends in very well with the regular driftwood.

And there you have it. So cute in a garden or just on display. Since I used Titebond WW30 HiPur Hot Melt Adhesive, I can use my birdhouse outside.

Driftwood Bergere Chair Project

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Driftwood Bergere Chair Refinishing Project

This is one of those projects I started over a year ago – yes over a year ago. It took me that long to remove all the staples (if you’ve ever done a re-upholstery job then you know what I’m talking about); decide on a fabric; make my own piping and then summon up the courage to actually attempt the re-upholstering and applying piping. And, in between there was a move to a new house so yes, this was a long time in the making. Amazingly enough, this is one of those projects that came out so beautiful when it was finally finished that it was well worth the time it took and I now have a beautiful driftwood Bergere chair.

This is the chair I started with – picked up at a thrift store for a mere $25. Pretty ugly but the style is exactly what I was looking for. I knew I wanted a Bergere style chair to use the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish to create a driftwood finish on the wood and recover it with some fresh new updated fabric most likely in gray tones. When the time came to choose a fabric, it took forever to decide and I actually purchased three different fabrics. I ultimately decided it was time to just pick one and move forward – anything was better than this hideous blue and pink fabric.

The first step is removing all the trillions of staples. I used a pair of needle nose pliers. You want to save all your pieces of fabric, including the lining pieces as you will use them as templates for cutting your own fabric so don’t get impatient and start tearing and ripping. You’ll also want to take good closeup pictures of every angle of the chair to show how the fabric folds and the piping flows. This really becomes helpful as does using the old fabric as a template to cut your new pieces. Pay attention to the layers and sequence of batting, webbing, canvas and any other pieces that make up the underlying structure of your chair as you will want to duplicate it as much as possible and use the same pieces when possible. Take pictures and make notes – you’ll be very glad you did.

Since I was going to use a paint stripping solution, I needed to tape off the areas I wanted to protect.

Then I started the very messy project of stripping this bad boy before applying the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish that would give me the driftwood finish I was looking for. Once the old paint was removed, I mixed a packet of the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish powder with a cup of water and started applying with a brush. And of course, because I’m so impatient, I don’t test it first and I get a very dark color – darker than I really want. But I keep going anyway because it still looks good even though it’s darker than I want. What I should have done was test it first and I would have known to dilute the solution. This would have resulted in the lighter finish I really wanted.

Now starts the hard part of re-upholstering. But this poor little chair sat like this for over a year before I picked up this project again. Now, a smart person would have applied the Driftwood Liming Wax at this point certainly before recovering the chair with fabric but not me. I was still okay with how dark the wood was so I began the re-upholstery. Here’s where researching the internet came in very handy. I researched many videos and websites on re-upholstering chairs and gleaned a lot of good information. I am a fairly good seamstress so sewing the cushion didn’t scare me. Cutting and making my own piping was just time consuming but ended up not being that bad at all. Even applying the piping was pretty easy using Magna Tac glue.

Following the advice of one website – I actually used a spray glue to fuse and apply the webbing and batting to the chair. This eliminated the need for using too many staples in the areas where the wood was already worn out. Using the old fabric pieces as my templates, I cut all my new pieces in my nice new fabric.

Once I applied the batting to the front, back, arms and seat with the spray glue, I started stapling the fabric in place using an electric staple gun. This is where I learned a very important lesson that helped me a lot and made a world of difference so I want to pass it on. I initially started by pulling the fabric taught on all sides and stapling as shown on the left below – then I saw a video of someone who suggested folding the fabric under before stapling and I literally pulled out all my staples and started over with rolling under the hem before stapling. You can see how much neater and cleaner it looks and I can tell you it will save you time as you will not have to go back and cut away the excess and you will not have hanging threads. And it’s so much neater and easier to cover with either a single or double row of piping.

Using Magna-tac glue I applied my single row piping. Here is another big tip I’d like to share. Measure and sew your pieces of piping together to create more than enough length to cover the area you are working on. Trying to piece together two pieces of piping because you come up short just makes it very difficult and usually ends up looking sloppy. Plus it usually ends up with trying to piece it together in an awkward place like smack in the front where it will be quite noticeable. It’s so much easier if you have the right length to fully cover the area right from the start. Here you can see I’ve glued on the piping on the arm and tucked and glued the ends. Start and end in the most inconspicuous area possible. Start with small sections first until you get comfortable with it though it’s not that hard. Just make sure to cover your staples.

Weeks after the chair was completed, I decided to attempt applying the Driftwood Liming Wax to lighten the finish. Not an easy task and not one I recommend. Trying to avoid getting the wax on the fabric was difficult at best but with a lot of effort, I managed. I do like the finish so much better. You can see the difference below. This is the driftwood shade I was looking for and if I had just taken the time to test the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish I would have known to dilute it and would have gotten this color without having to add the Driftwood Liming Wax. But I will say it again – this is one of my favorite projects and it came out so well. I finally have my driftwood Bergere chair. This chair would sell for an easy $600-$700 in the stores and it’s going to look amazing in my sunroom as soon as I can get that room finished.

Driftwood Highboy Refinishing Project

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Over the past 2 months, I’ve been slowly working on my driftwood highboy refinishing project which meant stripping and refinishing an antique highboy piece and then refinishing it with the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish. Well, I’m happy to say it’s finally done and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

driftwood highway — Finished Highboy using Driftwood Weathered Wood Finish

I purchased this highboy piece over 30 years ago at an antique store. At the time I purchased the highboy, it was a hideous orange toned stained wood but it was a bargain at $375.00. I distinctly remember that once I had stripped the orange stain, I had made a mental note that the bare wood had a beautiful distressed look to it and even back then I was tempted to leave it that way. I also remember that I had done a major faux pas at the time I stripped it by using a steel wool pad to remove the finish and it had left little black specks everywhere. But this had actually contributed to the weathered look in a good way. I ended up staining the highboy in a dark mahogany color to match the other furniture in my room at the time. I also remember that the stain did not take very well and I literally had to apply the stain and leave it on the piece without wiping off the excess. This was the only way I could get the stain dark enough over the maple wood.

Original antique highboy — Original piece

Above is the piece before stripping and sanding. It has always been a beautiful piece. Below, I have started to strip and sand and needed to remove some of the more intricate pieces in order to get the finished removed. I did this work outside in the Florida summer heat – not exactly the best conditions to be doing this type of work and that is why it took me 6 weeks to fully complete this project. Some days it was just too hot!

Driftwood Finish Highboy

Driftwood Weathered Wood Finish applied to top drawer but still drying

Antique driftwood highboy — Stripped and sanded; application of Driftwood Weathered Wood Finish.

The original hardware was brass and my original intention was to create a “rusted” finish. I thought driftwood finish would be a nice backdrop to rusted hardware. I attempted many solutions to create a rusted finish including soaking the hardware overnight in baths of vinegar and baking soda; vinegar and salt; and ammonia. While I didn’t get a rust finish, I did get a somewhat verdigris finish. After soaking the hardware pieces overnight and letting them air dry, I then applied a product by Modern Options called Verdigris with a paintbrush and dried it using my heat gun. This seemed to increase the verdigris finish somewhat although I did not use the product according to their directions. I did not apply their base product. I have since found that the hardware’s verdigris finish has continued to turn quite a bit.

distressed hardward — Distressing the hardware

finished driftwood highboy — Finished driftwood highboy

So there you have the final driftwood highboy refinishing project. It came out even better than I had expected and I’m in love with this piece but now my bed no longer matches. Just when I thought I was done with refinishing projects for awhile…

Creating a Driftwood Finish With Paint

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Creating a Driftwood Finish With Paint

Driftwood Finish with Paint

I used this technique for creating a driftwood finish with paint, which I confess I garnered from another website some time ago and unfortunately, I do not remember where. But, I do remember the process and it worked quite well for me in getting that driftwood look.

I started with just two different driftwood-like colors of flat, water-based latex paint, plus a small amount of basic black and white artist’s acrylic. The black and white were just from small tubes of acrylic paint I had on hand for painting on canvas. You will only need a small amount of the white and black so just buy small tubes if you don’t already have some water based latex or acrylics on hand.

Sherman-Williams Grays Harbor

Sherman-Williams Pavestone

Pick the two colors you want from any assorted flat, water-based acrylic grays, beiges, sand or dark creams at the paint store that you feel will give you the colors and shades to mimic a driftwood finish. I chose a quart each of 6236 Grays Harbor and 7642 Pavestone latex flat paint & primer both from Sherwin-Williams’ SuperPaint collection. So now you have Grays Harbor and Pavestone.

But you want to have more colors to work with and in order to achieved additional tints and shades I merely added a little of the white or black to Grays Harbor and Pavestone. Pour a small amount of Grays Harbor into a plastic cup or container and mix in a small amount of white paint to achieve a lighter tint – we now have Grays Harbor Light. Do this again using Pavestone as your base and you will create Pavestone Light.

Now pour some of Grays Harbor and Pavestone in yet two more separate containers and add a small amount of black to each to get a darker shade of Grays Harbor and Pavestone. You now have Grays Harbor Dark and Pavestone Dark and a total of 6 different driftwood colors for creating a driftwood finish. Truthfully, I believe I only used 4 of the colors on my project but you now have lots of different shades and tints to work with and you can create as many as you want using this method of adding varying amounts of white or black to your base driftwood colors.

This dresser was originally black with a beautiful antique gold stencil pattern but, while it was once one of my favorite pieces, it no longer suited my new driftwood color scheme and beachy style. I went from British West Indies with its dark woods, burnt orange painted walls and vibrant tropical colors to subdued sand-toned walls and creamy beach theme with driftwood furniture and accessories. In the interim, before I decided on trying a driftwood finish using paint, I had given the dresser a distressed white finish. It was nice but I knew I could do better. I wanted that highly sought after driftwood finish and I also really liked a lot of the mirrored furniture I was seeing. Why not combine a driftwood finish with mirrored drawer fronts?

After mixing my paint colors, the procedure went as follows:

1. First, I used the Grays Harbor and painted the whole piece. Since I had never put any type of finishing product on the piece after I had painted it white, all I needed to do was scruff it up a bit with sandpaper to get some good paint adhesion and paint over the white with the gray.

2. Next, I took the darkest gray shade Grays Harbor Dark and made it a glaze by adding equal part water. I used a soft cloth and went over the areas of the legs where you can see the carving so that the darker shade got into the grooves. Don’t let the paint sit – you have to move quickly and wipe off most of the paint that has not settled into the grooves.

3. I then made a glaze from the Pavestone base color. Again, ½ water and ½ paint to make the glaze. I applied this layer in small areas of the piece with a brush and worked quickly to blend and soften the paint using a soft cloth – taking off quite a bit of the glaze as I went along. I slowly did this to the whole piece.

4. The next layer was the Pavestone Light. Again, I made a glaze of ½ paint and ½ water. I applied this layer using a very dry brush technique and very long brush strokes with a very light hand. I didn’t apply a lot – just a little here and there until I was happy with it.

5. For the final touch, I diluted black paint and a little water and, with a toothbrush and my fingers, I flecked the surfaces of the dresser with just little black specks here and there.

6. When I was done, I used Driftwood Natural Beeswax Wood Butter to give it a nice soft protective finish.

After several attempts at finding just the right knobs, I finally chose mercury glass knobs from Anthropologie.

I couldn’t be happier with how the finish came out and how the final piece looks. But I will note two things. First, as nice as this painted driftwood finish looks – I could have used the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish and got just as nice if not nicer driftwood finish in a lot less time and without all the paint and cleanup, but, I hadn’t developed the product yet and, in fact, this project inspired me to find an easier alternative; and second, having the mirror put on the dresser fronts may not have been the best idea. While it looks great (I had them done by a local glass and mirror shop), the mirror is very heavy and prone to crack if you put the handles on too tight or if you move the piece a lot like I have. The mirror on two corners has already chipped and cracked. I had really, really wanted antiqued mirror, i.e. smoky, aged and distressed but I could not find any locally so that was disappointing. This piece would have been over the top if I had been able to use antique mirrors as I originally wanted… sigh.

Creating a Driftwood Finish with Paint

Driftwood Mid-Century Modern Nightstand Project

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Project – Using Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish on Mid-Century Modern Nightstand

Driftwood Mid-century modern dresser

I found this beautiful nightstand at Goodwill for $25.00. I knew right away that it was a good, quality piece of furniture and sure enough, a little online research and “Dixie” furniture company was well known for mid-century furniture pieces. So, my problem is I want a mid-century modern piece with the look of driftwood. I’ve recently become infatuated with mid-century accessories and furniture – especially atomic art represented by the starburst.

This is my experiment to see if I can successfully combine the two with an updated, driftwood mid-century modern piece.

One of the things I found so special about this little nightstand was the handles – they had little “starburst” like symbols engraved in the metal. I had never seen that before but I thought that was pretty cool.

So my thought in this project is to use a starburst pattern and apply it using a mixture of wood glue and water like you would a stencil. Here is how the project went:

Driftwood Mid-Century dresser

Original piece being investigated by my little helper.

handles

These are the handles with the little “starbursts”

stripping the stain

Stripping the stain

Sanding the finish

Sanding the finish and then removing all the dust with tack cloth.

Sanded

All stripped and sanded and ready for the next step – adding the graphic.

Adding the stencil

Adding the graphics. I used carbon paper and traced the image onto the nightstand. Then carved around the image with an exacto blade. The idea behind this was that the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish would get in the cuts and create a darker outline of the image.

applying the graphic

Once I had the image on the nightstand with the carbon paper – I then used a mixture of Elmer’s glue and water (half n’ half) and went over the graphic using an artist’s brush. The glue mixture should prevent the stain from adhering and it will give me the graphic on the nightstand. There are wood glues out there that are specifically made to stain and others that should not take stain. Another idea might be to use an artist masking fluid. I suspect that would work just fine and it would give you a lighter graphic. You should be able to remove the masking fluid and reveal the unfinished wood coming through your pattern. I wish I had tried masking fluid first but patience is not one of my virtues and I wanted to get started with what I had. I’ll try it with the next project.

Applying the Driftwood Weathered Wood Finish

I’ve applied the Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish. One thing I noticed once I stripped the piece was that there were different types of wood used to make this piece. The legs were a blond oak and the sides I believe were a maple but I’m not 100% positive about that. The top piece is veneered – so I knew once I applied the Driftwood Finish, the different types of wood would each take the color differently.

Driftwood Weathered Wood Finish on Mid-Century Modern dresser

As you can see, the final piece has a lot of different tones – the legs are much lighter. But I love how the graphic came out. Now I have the problem of putting a protective finish on it. My first thought was to put a coat or two of the Driftwood Beeswax Wood Butter but I quickly nixed that idea. I realized that putting the wax over the cuts in the pattern would leave bits of wax in the cuts – like you get when someone does a poor job of waxing your car. Thankfully, I realized this before I went ahead with putting on the beeswax. But it does need some type of protective finish.

I’ve decided to put a matte polyurethane coating on the top at least. I’ve applied the polyurethane to the top and sides and it really darkens the finish quite a bit – more than I think I want. So I’m hesitating about putting the polyurethane on the front over the graphic – I’m afraid I’ll lose the graphic. I may decide to use the Driftwood Liming Wax on the whole piece. I suspect that I will lose the graphic if I do but I may be brave and do it anyway. I will post pics if I do.

I think I have at least achieved my driftwood mid-century modern look that I was going after.

Follow-up – I decided to sand the polyurethane off and apply the beeswax wood butter instead to the sides and top. The beeswax wood butter actually made the sides and top just as dark as the polyurethane so my only alternative is to leave it as is with a darker top and sides than I want or move on to trying the liming wax. I decided to go with the liming wax and I’m happy with that. It lightened up the top and sides a bit. In the picture below, I have not applied to the Driftwood Liming Wax to the top yet – just to the side.

Liming wax applied to side

Stenciling Patio Pavers with Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish Stain

The Vision

Let the Games Begin

The Hard Part

Final Project

Total Cost for Stenciled Patio Pavers using Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish

How to Make a Whimsical Driftwood Birdhouse

Supplies

Project – Using Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish on Mid-Century Modern Nightstand

Stenciling Patio Pavers with
Driftwood Weathering Wood Finish Stain