I like to think of myself as someone who does their bit to help the environment. I don't use bottled water, I compost my scraps and I have an appropriate amount of guilt-spasms whenever I throw away tissue paper instead of flattening it out and saving it to reuse later.
If I'm being perfectly honest, that last one is less about the environment and more about being raised by a mother who not only saved tissue paper, but fills out birthday cards in pencil so you can reuse them yourself later. It's a cheap thing, not an environment thing but the end result is the same. Saving the forests one pink puff of paper at a time.
Basically I do what I can and beat myself up a moderate amount when I know I could do more. Like, sometimes if it's pouring rain outside and the recycle bins are already out by the curb, I'll say a little swear word, look outside, roll my eyes, then shove my pop can in the actual kitchen garbage and run away quickly. I have no idea why I run away quickly, I just do. To date, running away quickly has had little to no impact on anything.
But when I started thinking about how I was going to stain the wood outdoor furniture I made, I found myself gravitating towards the super-hippie, I live in the woods under a fern option of vinegar and steel wool.
Yes. Staining wood with a solution of steel wool soaked in vinegar. You've maybe heard about it.
You take a small handful of steel wool (about half a pad) and stick it in a mason jar filled with vinegar and then leave it alone. What you get after a week or so is a brown, rusty looking solution. When you paint this on wood it doesn't "stain" the furniture per say, but causes an instantaneous chemical reaction between the solution and the tannins in the wood.
Because of this, the wood ends up looking aged, not artificially stained. Which is perfect if you're trying to make something look a bit old and worn.
Do not put it on your face because of this.
The great part about using a solution like this is it only stinks like vinegar a little bit and the smell goes away quickly, unlike a traditional stain which will stink up a whole house and stays stinky for a long time.
I started some vinegar and steel wool solutions at a few different times so when the time came to stain I had a few options for staining. I tested them on the underside of my chair arms so I could get a really good idea of what they'd all look like. I really liked the second example best, the solution that had been sitting for weeks and weeks. But I didn't have enough of it because I forgot to keep a lid on the jar and it evaporated into thin air.
So I mixed all of the very old solution with some of the 1 week old solution and let that sit for a few days before brushing it on.
It seems like a lot of waiting around for the right colour, but I was being picky. If you're just trying to make a new wood crate look old, stick some steel wool in a jar of vinegar and let it sit for a few days then brush it on.
It takes no time at all. You just brush it on and you're done.
What I ended up with was my DIY Restoration Hardware Aspen collection furniture looking like it had been sitting outside weathering for longer than the 3 weeks or so that it had.
Not only did this eco-friendly method work, it worked better, faster and easier than anything else I could have done.
How easy? Well, harder than flattening out a piece of tissue paper but easier than running out to the recycle bin in the middle of a lightening storm apparently.
Mary W
Love the color you achieved - perfect aging!
Marilyn meagher
Looks great! And frugal too. Win win
maggie van sickle
u need to go into business of everything. Good job!
Karen
I am in the business of everything Maggie. I'm a blogger. ;) ~ karen!
Katie
I thinking of doing this method on my son's old pine flooring. Do you seal the wood afterwards?
Karen
If you're doing it indoors on a floor then yes, you'd need to seal it afterwards Katie. ~ karen!
LisaB
I think that pine does not have enough natural tannins to react with the vinegar mixture. I did this to refinish an old pine table and used brewed black tea on the wood first. It worked so well! So easy.."..
Cathy
Did the drips stain your stone pavers?
Karen
I wiped them up after and nope, they did not. ~ karen!
jainegayer
It looks wonderful with the vinegar stain!
Marie Anne
I love that you used an eco-friendly option! Maybe next time it's raining you can just put the pop can on the counter to take out the next day? Think of how happy that would make mother nature!
My real question though is did you or should you use a sealer on your furniture after staining? Are there any eco-friendly or cheap options for that?
Karen
This is really, really hard wood Marie Anne (Ash, like they use to make baseball bats) so I probably don't really need to do anything with it. It would take many decades for it to ever rot away. But to be safe I could use Thompson's Water Seal. It's inexpensive and still allows the wood to age naturally underneath. ~ karen!
Marie Anne
:)
Debbie D
As always, looks fab!
Mondo | I bake he shoots
you always use the catchiest music in your vids. great work!
btw...last week, I watched the latest season of Luther on Netflix and thought of you. oh Idris...
Karen
Oh Idris, lol. :) Speaking of music, that song is actually the theme song for the show Please Like Me, which I talked about in my last post about 3 shows you should be watching. ~ karen!
Mondo | I bake he shoots
you always use the catchiest music in your vids. great work!
Lynn
Have to say I love your DIY stain it makes your furniture look so inviting. I had to check to see if there was a DIY finish to protect your beautiful set an I found this . http://www.remediesandherbs.com/top-4-homemade-wood-polish-and-sealant-recipes/ Let me know what you think, we all have found out you have great instincts .
Cheryl Smith-Bell
Love this and your links are spot on! Thanks!
Karen
Hi Lynn! Yup, some of those are good choices. I make a Beeswax/Mineral oil wood conditioner that works great on any raw wood. Just plain mineral oil is great too and I'd choose it before canola oil I think and it's the best choice for butcher blocks. But for protecting anything that will be be left outside you want to stay nice I'd use Thompson's Wood Seal. It's protects from weather but lets the wood age naturally plus it soaks in so it doesn't have a shiny finish. :) ~ karen!
Catt in Kentucky
Love the results!
Kathleen
I just love the furniture. With or without the stain.
Nancy Blue Moon
I love the color you ended up with...really does look naturally aged...it's worth the wait to save on the cost and labor (labour)...Un-huh...didn't know I could speak Canadian did ya?
Karen
Very impressive. ;) ~ karen!
MrsChris SA
That is awesome!! Definately going to try this!!
Thank you!
GC Lehman
It looks fantastic! I offered to do all this with the trim in out new bathroom. Everyone else opted to go buy some. I like economic and wallet friendly better but, it wasn't my wallet, just my labour. So....aside from the smell and dark black fingers and nails for days who am I to complain....?
Bobbles
So how do you treat the wood after it's been vinegared? The wood must need some oil, doesn't it? I would think all the vinegar would be drying. I have outdoor pieces right now that could use some oil bathing.
Karen
You can just leave it Bobbles. Or if it's for use outside and you feel the need to protect it you could put on Thompsons Water seal which still lets the wood continue to age but protects it from water damage. ~ karen!
Amy
Hi Karen,
Thanks for the stain recipe. I loved the look of the wood when I tried this. I also loved the ease of application (I used a rag). But! I tried sealing with Thompsons Water Seal, and it changed the look of the wood, all blotchy and wet and ugly. So Thompsons Water Seal does not work, unfortunately. I just ordered a gallon of Modern Masters Exterior Dead Flat Varnish in hopes that this will work. Fingers crossed!
Karen
Good to know Amy! I've used the waterseal on plain wood, not the stained stuff. I wonder if it would work fine after the "stain" has sat for a year or so? I could give it a shot on my own year old furniture. ~ karen!
TucsonPatty
That is amazing. I keep seeing that on Pinterest, but I've not yet had anything on which to try it. (Ooo, grammar) Thank you for the experimenting that you do, so we don't have to try it all ourselves! There is a stump-side table in my life that I will be giving this a shot! I like the warmer three-weeks-full-pad color and wonder why the mixture didn't show more warmth? Weathered furniture is more grey-ish, so there is that.
TucsonPatty
P.S. Left-over stain? What do you do with it? Leaving the steel wool in it forever might get a little too dark...might it make a carefully applied weed killer?
Karen
I don't know, lol. Maybe? I'm just keeping my leftover stain in a mason jar in case I need it for touch ups. I imagine there's a point where the stain stops ageing. ~ karen!
Cynna
So, basically, you're creating rust juice to use as stain?
Karen
mmmmm. Not really. But kind of. ~ karen!
Sande
And it had to be way cheaper too!
doesn't seem worthy of being one of first comments although when quality and thriftiness mesh it's pretty sweet!
As always, thanks for all the tips & pics.