Pine Siding Stained With White Wash Tutorial

We lived with an ugly bookshelf in the living room and office for several painful months.  It was originally a large window in the living room, but then an addition was added to the other side.  Whoever did it decided to split the window area evenly between the two rooms for bookshelves -- which left the living room shelf only about 3.5" deep.  Hard to find books that tiny. It looked disjointed and the stone sucked all of the light out of the room. Above is a realtor photo, before we bought the house.


We finally found someone brave enough to tear it all out and do something outstanding in the living room (see  that post HERE).  That left the office side, which we decided we just wanted a regular flat wall, not the stone wall. The contractor recommended yellow pine siding, which looks like the ever-popular ship lap. That was a great suggestion, except for the nauseating yellow hue of the wood.  I knew in my heart that I had to do a white wash on it, but was not looking forward to the mess.

I used the same watered down paint that I had used in THIS tutorial post. The paint / water ratio is the same. The technique is a little different because the yellow pine siding was already on the interior wall.  If you have an extra piece of siding, it would be great to do some "off the wall" practicing. I hit all of the dark places once first before trying the all-over technique.  (above is after I did the all-over to the top boards.)

The mess really wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.  I wiped the brush on the side of the paint can 3-4 times before applying and that really kept the splatter to a minimum.  The thinner paint also was easier to apply in the narrow horizontal cracks.  I would say that it is important to do a whole horizontal "board" from left to right, instead of top to bottom. All brush strokes should be as straight and horizontal as possible. You don't want it to show where you stopped and let paint dry, and then started again.  It means moving the ladder around more, but it gives it a more professional look.
It is also important to look back over areas that are completed to make sure there are no drips.  Just do a horizontal brush over any drips. If an area looks too light, go ahead and put another stroke of paint over it.

 When we were done the wall was so gorgeous that my husband was hesitant to hang the ceiling tile pieces that we had planned for decoration.  But after getting them up, we were both pleased.

 (You've got to love those colors and all of that chippy goodness!)