Creating the Pottery Barn Finish

 I love to shop at furniture stores to get inspired.  One store that I absolutely love is Pottery Barn.  However, I've never purchased anything from their store, simply because I can't afford it.  I've been trying to replicate their finish for a while now, without luck.

 The above dresser was my inspiration.  You can also find a similar finish on wood at Restoration Hardware.

So, I went to my cabinet-maker friend, Cody Greene, for advice.  He recommended trying steel wool soaked in vinegar.  

You soak it for at least a day in a jar of vinegar, so it will oxidize.

It will look groady and nasty, like this:

So I took a piece of 1x8 unfinished pine wood, and brushed it on.  It went on clear.  Nothing happened.  I gave up, and set it aside.  Later, as I was cleaning up, I came back, and lone-behold, my wood had turned dark grey!  It was too dark for my liking, so I applied a coat of watered-down off-white milk paint over the entire thing.

After it dried, I sanded it down with a rough, 80 grit sand paper.  This left it all streaky-looking.  Finally, I finished it with an antiquing wax.

The finish came out exactly like the one at pottery barn.

This is a plank that I am going to convert into a coat rack for the Priceless event on Saturday.

I'll admit, I was so excited about this finish, I did a few boards in it.  Here is a growth chart, also for the Priceless event:

 

If you are interested in coming to visit me at the event, click here for the facebook event page.  I'm pretty stoked for it, it's been a busy week getting everything ready to go, but it'll be so worth it!

Hope to see you there!