How to Lighten Up Textured Dark Wood Walls With Paint

When your wood walls seem too dark for the interior space, the solution may be simply to lighten the color while allowing the texture and grain of the wood to show through. Known as whitewashing, this process lightens up textured dark wood walls with paint for an attractive effect. Whitewashing is an old-fashioned painting technique that continues to be a useful decorating solution.

Drop cloth
Trisodium phosphate
Bucket
Plastic gloves
Sponge
Painter’s tape
Whitewash stain
6-inch flat paintbrush
Clean rag

Instructions

- 1
  Cover the floor beneath the wall with the drop cloth.
- 2
  Mix 1/4 cup trisodium phosphate with 2 gallons of warm water in a bucket. Wearing plastic gloves, apply the cleaning solution to the wall to wash the wood. Rinse away the chemicals with plain water and dry the wall with a towel.
- 3
  Apply painter’s tape over adjacent surfaces that meet the wall to prevent paint from spreading as you work. Cover edges along the ceiling, adjacent walls, baseboards, windows and doorways.
- 4
  Load the paintbrush with whitewash stain and apply it to the wood to cover a 3-foot area. Before the paint dries, rub it gently with the clean rag to spread it and remove excess paint. Continue rubbing the whitewash until you remove as much as you want to lighten the wood.
- 5
  Repeat the same process to whitewash the wall in 3-foot sections. Blend the sections carefully with the rag to ensure you do not create visible seams in the whitewash application.
- 6
  Allow the whitewash stain to dry for the time recommended on the product label. Remove the painter’s tape.

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