# Rustic Decor Painting
While building a house out of wood and stone is certainly the easiest way to achieve a true rustic home, you can employ several painting techniques to achieve a rustic look.
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Staining
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Stains can be used to help give wooden furniture a more mature and rustic appearance. Unlike regular paints, which cover the surface of a material, stains are designed to penetrate into the material. More transparent stains will help accentuate the texture and details of the material, while more opaque stains will work to mask the grain. Pigmented stains can even help add color to the material.
Stains, which can be either water- or oil-based, come in one of five varieties: gel stains, wiping stains, combination stain/finish, spray stains and water-based liquid stains.
“Rustic” Texture Effect
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Texturing on the wall helps give this room a more rustic appearance. Using a slow-setting drywall joint compound, it is possible to give a wall a “rustic” stuccolike appearance. The joint compound is generously and roughly spread across the wall, creating a three-dimensional finish. You then apply a base coat, followed by an application of glaze. The glaze flows into the crevices, giving them a darker color.
“Rustic” texturing is a useful tool for giving walls, especially imperfect walls, an old-world look.
“Aging” Effect
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"Aged" walls help give this rustic kitchen a sense of history. You can give a wall the illusion of a timeworn, textured finish using a technique known as aging. A first color of paint is applied to the wall in selected areas -- in some of the areas heavily and in others lightly. Next you blend the first color into the wall with a damp sponge using a dubbing motion, feathering the edges. Then apply a second color of paint using a trowel, making certain to only just catch the surface of the wall with the trowel, and varying the direction of the strokes. Finally, you can use a sponge to apply glaze, with a mix of wiping and dabbing motions.
Choosing similar colors will result in a more subtle effect of aging, while choosing more heavily contrasting colors will result in a more dramatic, heavily worn finish.
“Distressing” Effect
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This worn-looking dresser would be perfectly at home in a rustic-style bedroom. Having appropriate-looking furniture is also important to achieving a rustic design, and distressing is a technique that can help add decades to the look of a piece. Creating the effect is dependent on a device called a wood-graining tool. First, you apply a base coat. Next, a small amount of glaze is added to the area you want to work. Use the wood-graining tool to drag the glaze over the desired area, rocking it back and forth at various speeds as you pull. This creates the appearance of old wood that has suffered wear and tear through the years. You can then add faded color by lightly applying colored paint using a dry brush.
Use distressing on all sorts of furniture. By choosing the appropriate colors, you can create a subtle, or a dramatic, effect.
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