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What method is best to age my pink wood floors?


moonberry

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I painted the 3 floors the pink I wanted. Then I scored floorboards with the back side of my utility knife, to see if I liked it. After an hour and with very sore hands, it came out quite nice. But the lines weren't very visible and the pink was a bit too bright and new-looking. Then I sanded the floor a bit to pick up the edges of the floorboards. There is some white showing through from the primer layer. 

To tone down the brightness of the pink and to age the floors, I'm thinking of using watered down brown acrylic paint and giving the floor a thin wash, rubbing it off in places and letting it seep into the cracks of the floorboards.

Any advice for me before I take the plunge?

Here is a picture of the floor just before I sanded it down a bit.

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=gallery&module=gallery&controller=view&id=121440

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The scoring is beautifully done. Time well spent. :)

I think maybe do a test piece. Time consuming to replicate, I know, but worth the investment. I think I'd add a touch of green to the brown wash. Green being the complementary color to rose/red, it should give a hint of grayish cast to the result. 

Instead of using a brush, I'd use a small pad of soft cloth -- like old tee shirt material -- wrapped around my fingertip and use a circular motion to rub it in, rub it off in the same application.

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Lene, when I finished bricking the downstairs exterior walls of the pub the "bricks" were 'way too loud!, so I used a wash of gray & white to calm them down.  If you want to intensify the color, but darken it a bit, brown is a good choice; but if you want to tame that PINK!!! Kathie's suggestion of just a touch of green mixed in ought to do the job.  Most definitely do a test, and really dilute your wash; it's OK to do several coats to get the look you want, if you need to.

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Lene, I'd start with a burnt umber wash in one corner, and gently wipe or dab off the excess to see how it looked. The brown should fill in the cracks. If it was looking ok I might want to make the wash thinner or go ahead and add another layer of wash to give the pink boards a little more toning, or maybe change the wash color a little. I work in color and stain layers a lot, because as I work on something I often find myself feeling some surface needs a little more depth, or a bit of a different shade till it looks the way I want it to. 

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2 hours ago, Soapz said:

Lene, what about whitewashing the floors? It would add some lightness. 

 

I'm aiming for historic-yet-modern touches Parisian interior, not the entire modern shabby chic as such. And I'm saving up to get some lighter shades of carpets, so that will contrast nicely with the darker floors.

Thank you everybody, so burnt umber and hint of green, maybe even a slight touch of gray and "wax on.... wax off" hahahahaha

I love the idea of different areas of darkening over the years as furniture was moved, areas had more footfall and little bumps and spills happened. :clap:

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A tiny bit of powdered chalk pastel (brown or gray) lightly applied with a soft brush and lightly rubbed with a bit of tissue gives a nice scuffed look, if you're going for a well-used look.  Again, try it on a sample first!

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