I love experimenting with different painting techniques. I’ve tried just about all of them. Some have been complete DIY failures (we wont talk about those), but most of them I have loved, such as the Saltwash Paint Additive.
Today, I’m going to share the Saltwash technique with you, along with my thoughts about the product.
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This is not a sponsored post. All reviews and opinions are my own.
Saltwash Paint Additive
1. Purpose
The purpose of Saltwash is to give an aged, textured look to your furniture or pretty much anything else you’d like to paint. It’s even been used on canvas art, although I’ve never tried that. It gives a chippy, layered effect as if your piece had been aging for years.
2. Mixing
Saltwash comes in a powder form. It’s an additive that you can mix with any type of paint your little heart desires. That’s one of the things I love most about it. I also love that it can be applied to any type of surface.
The instructions say to mix at a 1:1 ratio. Honestly, I didn’t measure. There was only a little paint left in my can, so I added the paint to a plastic container and slowly added a little Saltwash at a time, until it reached an icing-like consistency. I used the Rustoleum Chalk Paint as the base coat for this project.
I chose an old fence picket as my project piece and wanted to give it a chippy white look.
My Project Piece – an old fence picket
Icing-like consistency
3. Applying
I used my favorite paint brush and applied the Saltwash in a glob-like method. Basically, you just dab the paint brush on your piece, creating little peaks. You really can’t mess this part up, so just have fun with it (another one of my favorite things about this product)!
Once the paint starts to dry just a little, you’ll gently wipe the peaks using light paint strokes in a back and forth motion to very slightly knock them down without removing the texture.
Glob-like painting method
After applying the saltwash
After brushing down the peaks
4. Painting
Once the Saltwash layer is completely dry, you will apply a second layer of paint. If you really want your piece to have a layered look, it’s best to use a contrasting color. I simply wanted a chippy white look, so I decided to go with a slightly different shade of white for the top coat. I used Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Ironstone. You DO NOT add the salt wash to this coat.
Top Coat with Milk Paint
5. Sanding
After your top layer of paint is dry, you will sand your piece. This is where all the magic happens. The layers are revealed and the chippy goodness starts to happen. I used an electric sander to do this, but if you don’t have one, you can use a coarse sandpaper and lots of elbow grease. You can sand as much or as little as you’d like. It just depends on how distressed you want your piece to look. I mostly focused on the edges of my pieces to give it a more natural aged look.
Finished Project
Overall, I loved my experience with Saltwash Paint Additive. Although, I do feel like it gave more of a distressed look than the chippy look I was after, but that could just be due to my sanding technique. I still love the layered texture look and definitely plan to use Saltwash on more projects.
Have you ever tried Saltwash? If so, what did you think about it?
Video Tutorial on How To Use Saltwash
Other posts you may enjoy:
Using Salt Wash to Create A Chippy Look
Thrift Store Table Flip with Chalk Paint
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