Distressing!!!...fun!...fun!...fun!

I could definitely go crazy "distressing" wood!  Today was the first time I have tried this technique, and there's something so therapeutic about it.  I can't wait to tackle a piece of furniture, but I thought I'd start small, being that it was my first time.
I've been thinking about what I could do to these candle holders, and decided to go the "distressing" route!  I LOVE how they turned out!

Here's how I bought them:

From Left-To-Right...

Left:  Finished, New, Beautiful Distressed Candle Holder!

Middle:  After sanding down the candle holder, and nailing a piece of wood to the top!

Right:  blah, boring, Old Candle Holder!

(ignore the too big of a lamp shade for the too small of a lamp base...I was experimenting with something. haha)

After nailing on a new piece of wood to the top of the candle holder, I then gave it 1 coat of water-based paint!  It doesn't need to be perfect since you're going for that old distressed look, and you're later going to be staining and sanding it down anyways.

After the paint dried, with a cloth, I dabbed stain around the corners and crevasses of the candle holder...

...and then with the dryer part of your cloth, wipe the stain back off...

It'll still leave a stain tint on there, but it will blend in.

I then took my sand paper again, and scruffed it up a bit.

This process is kind of hard to explain, but I honestly don't think you can go too wrong with distressing!  Maybe that's what is so fun about it, you kind of just play around with it, and don't need to worry about messing up.

Here's a picture of BEFORE and AFTER side-by-side!

oooo - Jenny