How to weather new wood

This is a little 411 on how to make some new wood look old – or in my case my old wood look old again.

Sand down my craft table with a palm sander to get all the potential slivers away and you're left with a table that had a “fresh wood” look – well, that was definitely not the look we're after. I loved how the table looked prior to sanding, and i wanted that same old gray weathered look back.
Before sanding…

after doing a little google search and found a few how-to’s to gray wood.  I came across an easy one and gave it a shot.  One piece of steel wool, glass bottle and vinegar.  Just take the steel wool and rip it in small pieces, put it in the jar and cover with vinegar.  After 24 hours most of the steel wool will be dissolved.  Mine didn't turn dark like this until the metal on the lid reacted with the vinegar and turned it dark – it was like my own little science experiment :)

Then i just brushed it on the table and as soon as the vinegar touched the wood, it started to change.  I guess the steel wool reacts with the vinegar and when this is put on wood, it speeds up the natural oxidation process – neato.

But, let me just tell you that this little process STUNK!!!  Not like vinegar that you would think – but it was worse – seriously nasty.  So here's half the table with the vinegar and the other freshly sanded – big difference

This is what it looked like after all the vinegar was on – then i let it dry for a day – soak up all that vinegary goodness.

After it was dry, i gave it a light sand and it is back to its good ol’ gray self – just the way i wanted it – i love when things work out like they are supposed too – it makes my world a happier place :)