DIY Weathered Wood Walls

Strip paint from your walls if they're already painted to start with a clean slate. Use a paint stripper according to the manufacturer's instructions to return the wood to its natural state.

Rub wax paste into some areas of the wood sporadically in areas you want your eventual paint job to look more weathered and rubbed off. Every place you rub the wax paste will prevent the paint from adhering to the wood, so the more wood you cover with wax, the more wood will show through the finished paint job. Some choice locations are around doors and windows, in corners, near the ceiling or floor, and in places where two pieces of wood meet.

Paint the walls a flat latex paint in the color of your choice. Allow the walls to dry for at least 24 hours.

Sand the walls with an 80-grit sandpaper. Wherever you put the wax paste, the paint will rub off easily to reveal the wood below. The remaining paint will have a dull, worn look.

Make characteristic dents and nicks in the wall. Hit the wall with something heavy and metal, such as a chain, a sock full of nuts and bolts, or a hammer. Use reasonable force to just distress the surface of the wood, but don't hit hard enough to damage the structure. Make as many marks as you prefer, spreading them all over the wall or making just a few at random.

Scratch the wood with a stiff wire brush. Scratches would most naturally occur where there would be wear and tear caused by friction, such as where a chair back might strike or along edges of a wood beam or around a door frame.

Hammer some nails of different lengths and sizes into a 1-by-2-inch piece of scrap wood. Hammer them in so they go through the wood and stick out the opposite side. Space them randomly to avoid a pattern so they look more natural.

Hit the wood walls with the scrap wood, nail points facing the wall. This will create what looks like worm holes. Create as many or as few as desired sporadically along the walls in random places.

Rub a rag over some dark brown shoe polish paste, then rub the rag on scrap newspaper to get most of it off so you can apply a very sparing coat. Rub the shoe polish rag onto any scratches, creases or holes in the exposed wood to darken them and make them more pronounced. Wipe away excess with a clean, dry rag.

Sand the walls with a 150-grit sandpaper to smooth over holes and dents and further wear the surface.