If you have have a recent stroll through a "regular" furniture store lately (no bare wood furniture in sight), you've probably seen that most of the more popular items are "weathered" or "distressed." It is the furniture equivalent of "stone washed jeans."

Sadly, because the distressing is done via machine, there's always a discernable pattern to be found in it, and this, in my mind, makes it almost not even worth purchasing.

At this time, most people who gravitate toward bare wood furniture are independent do-it-yourselfers, and will always be on the lookout for advice and tricks to help make the results of their hobby even more striking than ever. If you'd like to give your furniture a great, truly random distressed appearance, this suggestion could be just what you've been looking for.

Before you get to the step of staining wood furniture, simply take a 3'-4' length of chain and work the furniture over with reasonably hard blows. Not excessively hard, as we don't wish to crack anything, but certainly hard enough to leave marks! Distress your bare wood furniture to check, then sand and stand as normal. The "bruises" and indentations will be differently colored and the overall effect will be a rugged, weathered look that is quite appealing.

If the thought of beating the daylights out of your beautiful piece of bare wood furniture gives you the willies, I would suggest working on a test board, then staining and noting the results, as there's definitely no taking it back once the deed is done!

And if you're still uneasy about using that tip, here is one that may be better to your liking.

When sanding in preparation for staining wood furniture, sometimes it happens. As you are bent over the wood, that bead of sweat that was building up on your brow decides it is no longer content there, and splat! Right onto the wood. If you just stain it at this point, you'll have a watermark where the stain reacts visibly differently to that spot of the wood, so what to do?

Well, you can simply write it off as a "character mark" and have done with it, but if you would rather reduce its impact, finish sanding and wipe the piece with a tack cloth. After that, wipe the entire piece again, this time with a lightly damp rag. Let dry completely before proceeding. You may not be able to take the drop of sweat back, but you can reduce its presence with this simple trick.

These are but 2 things you can do before or during the process of staining wood furniture to aid enrich the overall look of the piece.

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