There’s a lot of faux – better or worse – out there.
Copy the popular Farmhouse Style with this super economical and easy wood finish.

I love a good faux finish, on wood, walls or furniture.

Since I’m just a simple farm girl at heart, my eyes widen at luxe quality faux finish,

but to be honest,

it would never come home with me.

Give me your weathered and worn,

your used and loved,

the fingered patina and chippy paint of an old vintage piece.

In fact, I have a length of fencing sitting in the rain right now, waiting for just the right weathered look to bring inside to make a sign for the stairwell.

Having said that,

I curated some faux looks I love:

It’s fun to work at a piece of furniture and give it an elegant look.  These days we’re seeing decals added on top of a faux finish.  The pieces I’ve done in that look were hand painted, more like the little picture at bottom left above.  My mother-in-law rescued a little three drawer dresser that I faux-finished with rose bouquets for her birthday about 25 years ago.  It is now coming back into style!

While I enjoy the detailed work, at times I’m in the instant gratification mood, and below is one result of faux wood finish the super fast and extra cheap way.

How to Create a Fast Farmhouse Finish with Paint

When you’ve dabbled with painting as long as I have, you’ve acquired a lot of paint. Not to mention the cast offs people want to give you.

When doing a “wash” in a faux finish, use up leftover acrylic paint and mix colors to get the finish colors you want. If you make mud, you have two choices. Decide it’s the color you wanted, or toss it and start over. This is leftovers, so no guilt.

That’s why this is an economical faux finish.  You use the paint you already have.

Supplies for a Farmhouse Style Faux Wood Finish

• Wood blank such as this sign
• Acrylic paint in white, green, yellow and gray
• Foam paint brush or 1″ bristle brush (my preference)
• Clean, damp rags

For the “French Laundry” sign I started with new wood, so I began with a fairly thick white wash:  about three parts paint to one part water.  I covered all the new wood with an even coat of this wash (I wanted some wood grain to show through).  A thinned paint like this dries quickly, so you can go straight into the faux finish part.

For the streaking, water the paint down more.  Usually about 1 part paint to two parts water.  The colors for this piece were gray, dusty lime green and golden yellow.

Start with the gray paint, coming off the ends and outside edges.  Use a barely loaded, “dry” bristle brush, so the lay-down of paint isn’t even. Sometimes with the brush flat, and some times with the edge, streak in color along the grain of the wood.  If you get too much, quickly wipe it off with a damp cloth.

When the gray is the way you like it, clean your brush and streak and dab the other colors here and there.  Don’t create a pattern, it’s just random.  You will not need very much green and yellow.

Here’s a close up of the same technique that I used on a mirrored cabinet for my laundry room:

Note: My final word on this fast faux finish style: It’s great for signs and a rustic, farmhouse look, but not the best technique if you want quality pieces.

Enjoy trying this low cost and easy Farmhouse Style Faux Wood Finish.

And please pin to your Pinterest account for further reference.

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