We’ve inherited quite a lot of old Portuguese furniture from the previous owners, so I though I’d lighten up the dark wood with a soft grey and give it a distressed look…

I haven’t tired of the shabby chic look and it pretty much defines our interiors out of a mixture of laziness and necessity. Although this did require a little bit of effort. But really not that much. Anyway, this how I did my DIY distressed chair…

1. I sanded down the chair with an electric sander. I didn’t try and get it perfect (as you can see below), especially as the sandpaper kept slipping out.

2. I then painted the chair with one coat of glossy soft grey. I think next time I’ll go for a matt emulsion, as this will be easier to sand off and leave a nicer look.

3. After leaving it to dry overnight, I took a finer grade sandpaper than I’d used with the sander and set to work by hand. Really no rhyme or reason apart from rubbing harder on the protruding edges and corners that would naturally wear and tear first. At first I worried it wouldn’t come out right, but after going over each surface at varying strengths the distressed look started coming together. I could have gone on I think, fine tuning and fine tuning.

And here is the final result. What do you think? I’ve got some cream paint I’m going to try out on another one…