How To Achieve the Raw Pine Look

We purchased an antique pine chest of drawers several years ago. It’s a lovely piece with turned wood feet, but over the years its had modifications that took away the original character. A few years ago, I painted it black and while I love this look; the dresser feels tired. I want to bring it back to its rustic best but my one sticking point is that raw pine turns yellow when sealed. What I want is a raw pine look but sealed for protection. So I went on a hunt.

The image above shows the dresser in its current state. The dresser has a chipped finish and requires work, but I think I would prefer a raw pine look. It only has five porcelain handles too, rather than six (because we removed a drawer and did not purchase a handle for it). I am trying to decide if I should keep these handles or put back an original mushroom top style of handle.

Stripping Back the Layers

There’s nothing like a quick makeover to make a chest of drawers feel new.. I’ve done it frequently. You can complete this task a number of ways, so I won’t go into it again. I used a combination of sanding and a heat gun to remove the layers of paint, finishing with a light sand of 120 grit paper all over the piece. I’m not going to lie. Removing the original mahogany coloured stain was not easy. I used a lot of sandpaper. And the turned legs were not fun at all.

After getting the chest of drawers stripped, I looked at the knobs and decided to keep the porcelain ones I had because I like the detailing on them. But I could not match them so I went with a porcelain knob with chrome details. I wanted it to match the brass look, so I spray painted it copper and added a bit of gold and black over the top until I achieved a colour I was happy with.

Creating a Raw Pine Look

Now for the fun part. I wanted the drawers to look like pale scrubbed pine but knew if I left them unfinished they would be ruined from coffee cups or lotion. I researched a number of ways to create a raw pine look and found with an Instagram post that gave a very professional and realistic finish. Here’s what I did.

YOU NEED:

• a small amount of white paint (a craft bottle will do)
• a paint brush
• a tub to mix the paint
• a squirter bottle filled with water
• an old absorbent rag
• furniture wax

WHAT TO DO:

Work in sections. especially if the weather is warm as the watered down paint will soak in faster and dry.

1. Mix the white paint with water at a 30% paint and 70% water ratio
2. Spray a section of timber with the squirter bottle filled with water
3. Paint on your mixture. Don’t worry if it looks very white like in the photo above. Most of the wash will soak in and be rubbed off.
4. Use your rag to rub off the excess until you get an even look and the desired colour. If it looks a bit dark you can add another coat of white. I did is in one part and as long as you blend it evenly with the parts you’ve already painted you cant notice it. I also sprayed the edges of the second coat to blend it which worked well
5. Leave the piece to dry and add a coat of furniture wax to seal. (Great smell!)

You end up with this!