How to DIY Age Wood

Finished 6 wine box display

I have read lots about this on tutorials and it seemed like quite a bit of work but thought I would give it a go.

First you need some wood to age. 

I chose wine boxes because they fitted in with the size of my Creative Upcycling craft fair display table & I needed something that could withstand the rigors of being flung in and out of my car and dropped on the floor regularly when I manage to overturn my trolley!

You will also need:

Black Tea (I also needed some to drink as I did the job)

Distilled vinegar (the clear stuff)

Fine wire wool (Not a soap filled pad!)

A two inch paint brush

A surface to work on (REMEMBER THIS IS MESSY AND THE VINEGAR WILL MAKE A MESS OF YOUR EXPENSIVE DINNER TABLE)

Wire Wool to Oxidise

Firstly put the wirewool in a jamjar with the vinegar and walk away for a couple of days.

Distilled Vinegar

I got really impatient at this point so decided to experiment with just using white vinegar without having to wait for the wire wool to oxidise in the jam jar. 

Once you are ready with black tea in a jam jar and the vinegar in another jam jar you are ready to go.  Using the brush paint the wood of the box with tea.  You do this because the brown stuff in tea is tannin and when the chemicals in the tannin react with the vinegar it turns the surface a lovely grey colour.  You could experiment with not painting with tea as often untreated boxes have plenty of tannin naturally present in the wood.

Be careful as the tea mixture is very drippy and you want the box to be coated evenly with tea.  Leave this to dry.

Next having washed the tea brush and dried on a paper towel use the vinegar mixture by brushing onto the box.  Again be careful as its drippy.  By the magic of chemical reactions, the box will start to ‘silver grey’ as it dries.  I found that by painting over again with vinegar the box colour darkened.

Left Side after Vinegar Right Side before Vinegar

I also found no difference using the vinegar straight away without the wire wool oxidation, my top tip is to trial what you do on a piece of wood (in an unobtrusive place) until you get the finish you like.

To protect the silvered surface you can use clear wax and a little elbow grease or you can spray with a matt acrylic finish or a high gloss finish.  Its all down to personal taste.

I painted the inside of my boxes with a white matt emulsion paint watered down to 2:1 but again you could do a different type of finish inside or do the same as the outside.  The only limits are your imagination. Beware watered down emulsion is also drippy and will make a mess (see my photo showing mess!)

Good luck and if you have any other tips please share them as I love to hear from you.