On moving in, we had the darkest wood windowsills, old fashioned and not on theme! I had seen Stacey Solomon do the ‘Frenchchic light wood hack’ on Instagram. The hack involves painting over the darker wood with a pale paint and then adding a browning wax to create the appearance of a light sandy wood finish, so rather than paint the sills and window frame white I thought I’d give it a go (I could always paint over in white if it all went pear shaped). However, it went very well, hence the blog post! So, here are the steps I took and tips I have on the process!
- Step 1 – Make sure the surface you are going to paint is clean and dry.
- Step 2 – Masking tape up the edges if you need too. (Windowsills, Bannisters, Beams are some of the bits that this hack could work on!)
- Step 3 – Paint on one thin layer of Frenchic ‘Crème De La Crème’ and wait for it to dry.
- Step 4 – Depending on how dark your original surface was, apply a second layer of ‘Crème De La Crème’. I applied two coats as the original surface was quite dark and was showing up a lot through the first coat – a little showing through is fine but too much darkness and I would say apply a second coat. I did a patch test on the windowsill before committing to the full area.
- Step 5 – Apply a coat of the Frenchic ‘Virtually Odourless Browning Wax’. I applied the wax with a paintbrush, but I had read when doing my own research, that it’s an option to apply with a sponge, depending on the finish that you want. My finish did have a few brush strokes but as the surface area wasn’t that large it wasn’t too noticeable. I would say that the browning wax takes quite a bit of ‘working in’ but the results are worth it.
- Step 6 – Apply a second coat of ‘Browning Wax’, again depending on how dark you are wanting the finish to be.
- Step 7 – Once the wax is dry, remove any masking tape you might have applied and enjoy your lovely light sandy wood finish.
I was really pleased with the results, the paint finished genuinely looks like natural wood and it saved a lot of effort, sanding to achieve this look. For a quick fix, particularly on smaller areas I would recommend giving it a try! I ordered both paints straight from Amazon!
