My Coffee-stained, Chain-beaten Wooden Counter Top.

Happy day to you!


The kitchen is not done,
but I thought I'd take you along as the various segments are completed
rather than wait until the end result.
(I don't know that you'll still be around in three years.

Yes, I'm teasing...


I hope).

Before I get to the fun

I thought I'd show you this:

it is our kitchen floor.

It is...

rough.

 It's an old pine floor,

probably not the original to the house,

which was built in 1850,

because pine doesn't last as long,

or so we've been told.

An estimate to it's age

is the first half of the 1900's.

(Our living room floor is oak

and is from an earlier time.

It does not sway and creak the way our kitchen floor does.)

The kitchen floor helped in our choice of counter top.
The cabinets were being custom made by an Amish man.
(if you go that route,
make sure you photo copy all instructions and keep some for yourself:
a lesson I learned,
although it turned out all right in the end.)

He made the unfinished butcher block counter top.
(It ended up being less than what we would pay for the cheapest counters
at Home Depot.

Of course, that was more cheerful in regards to our budget as well.)

 I wanted a distressed look.

It would fit the kitchen with its distressed floor 

much better than a perfect one would.

What a help research on the Internet is!

I took the ideas I liked the most

and practiced on a scrap board.

Then I hit the real counter top...

 literally.

This old sock was full of screws and nails and bolts

and whatever else was in my husband's
plastic container of miscellany.

I whacked the counter with this so hard,

it put holes in the sock
and metal weaponry began flying all over the room.

I thought I'd better not use up all my husband's socks,
so

I then whipped the counter up and down with the chain

trying not to let it bounce off and knock myself out.

I was unsure as to how much to mar the counter
so I kept referring to

a beautiful old blanket chest

that my husband's aunt gave to us.

I love the color of it

and the well worn marks all over it.

I used this as a guide to my distressing efforts.

I noticed there were an assortment

of scratches and black wound markings on our old chest...

so I tried to make some on my counter,

using a method suggested on a blog I read.

(Sorry that I don't have the details to the many websites I 

viewed in my searches for this.
If you come along and recognize any of your own tips,
please leave me a comment and I'll ad you at the end of this post.
Thank you!)

My Farmer was a bit concerned when I told him I was making lines
on the counter with these.

I have to admit

my kids were quite entertained watching me beat up this counter top.

The noise was rather loud.

But I gave them instructions that this was not a usual situation

I had going on here;

and that they were going to have to forgo any ideas that

they could "distress" any other furniture in the house for me.

I hope they remember that.

I then moved on to these:

I hammered

and hammered

as hard as I could

until I felt like I was worn out.

I tried to hammer indentations

and hammer on some of the gashes and scrapes

to make them look a little worn down

and not so fresh.

 I felt like I was really over-doing the damage,

but looking at the blanket chest

and my counter top,

I fell considerably short

from the scars on the blanket chest.

Next came the fun part:

the staining.

 I read on a blog about using coffee to give a more natural stain,

so I brewed up some extra strong coffee

and began to paint it on the counter top.

 The smell of the coffee was unbearable;
I had to stop for a coffee break.

It was enjoyable to paint in my new coffee house
rather than the

offensive smell of wood stains.

When I was done with the coffee painting and it was still wet,

I got a little bit of my black acrylic paint

and randomly painted blackened areas to the counter.

The aged wood of the blanket chest looked like this,

and although I'd read on the Internet to use a blow torch

and burn the spots in,

I didn't have a blow torch handy

and my little grill starter gun

just wasn't doing the job.

So painting the spots was my only alternative.

I actually left the coffee grinds on the wooden surface to dry;
some extra spotted staining was fine;
it turned out so light,
it's not noticeable.
Of course, if a person didn't want to deal with the mess
that the grounds made,
straining it before using it to paint would work fine.

I also made sure to stain the edges and under edge of the countertop
by about 2 inches,
so that the overhang will look the same underneath.
I wouldn't want my toddler or dog to see an unfinished counter,
now would I?

When the first coat of coffee stain had dried,

I got my permanent calligraphy ink,

and, using a paint brush,

I marked in spots and lines on the counter,

rubbing them in

so they looked more natural.

 I then gave a second coat of coffee stain to the counter

and let it dry.

This time, I brushed the coffee grains off.

Waterlox was the product most recommended 

for finishing wood floors and wood counters.

It is tung-oil based.

It was pricey

($35 for one quart),

but one quart was supposed to be able to do the job for this size.

I also purchased three wool applicators that were recommended

(one for each coat)

rather than a brush that would leave brush lines.

I began the first coat.

It has a really strong odor,
but it goes on smoothly and easily.

When it was dry

(I waited 48 hours to be sure),

the counter was not looking as "red" as I wanted;

so after roughly sanding the counter top

for better adhesion when applying the second coat,

I prepared the Waterlox for the counter.
I poured about 1/3 of the quart into a plastic container
and

added about 1/4 cup 

of Red Oak Stain

to it.

The second coat really absorbed into the counter as well...

 but the third coat (applied 48 hours later) was the charm!

 (Some extra board pieces had been stained and painted as I did the counter

for the back-splash of it.)

 This is how it will look

with the back-splash.


I ordered some "Old White" Annie Sloane Chalk Paint to do the
upper cabinets with: no sanding or priming needed!

I got a couple other colors for some future projects as well:
furniture projects to sell,
my bathroom medicine cabinet,
sewing machine cupboard,
bedroom furniture,
and Violet's floor.

Is a house ever finished?

I was a little fearful of getting too carried away with the distressing,
but am happy with the way the counter looks.

Let's just hope we can install it without any frustrations.

We have our own set of frustrations right now...

...like the stink bugs that are taking over our house

and stinking us...

...and Violet's spelling.

(I updated this counter after a year of using it.
The update is >HERE<.)

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