How to Distress an Existing Kitchen Island

Kitchen Islands that look like a freestanding piece of antique furniture are a huge trend in designer kitchens these days. If you already have an existing free standing or build in Kitchen Island, there are a few ways to distress it and give your kitchen a designer look on a budget.

Break Out That Bike Chain

A great way to distress a kitchen island is to try hitting the surface with a bike chain or any chain. You can practice this technique on a scrap piece of wood before you start antiquing and distressing your own kitchen island.

Simply hit the surface of your kitchen island with the chain until you have the piece as distressed as you would like! You can make as many divets as you would like.

Plug in That Sander

Now, a power sand is a super fast and easy way to distress an existing kitchen island. All you need to do is put on a sheet of rough sand paper onto yoru handy little sander. You can rough up corners, edges, paint, and basically any surface eon your kitchen island to age it.

This simple way to distress an existing kitchen island works best on a painted kitchen cabinet.

Dry Brushing

If you can not commit to actually sanding or making divets in the surface of your existing kitchen island you can use a pint brush with a little paint on it.

Simply dip the tip of your 3 to 5 inch wide paintbrush in some paint. Dab it off on some newspaper to remove a little. Now, lightly brush this across the surface of your kitchen island.

The trick is choosing a color of paint that will make your kitchen island looked distressed. If you have a painted kitchen island, then choose a paint color that looks like wood, is tan or even yellow! If your kitchen island is wood, then choose a paint color that will accent your kitchen.

Black paint will age and distress your kitchen island.

Simply Use Stain

I love using wood gel stain to distress Kitchen Island. Simply squirt some wood gel stain out onto a clean rag.

Rub the wood gel stain, in a nice dark walnut color, into your kitchen island. This will add years of age to any kitchen island.

You can also dry brush on a thinner wood stain in the same way as described in the dry brush section of this article.

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