Whitewashing Knotty Pine
 

We have a house at the beach and EVERY wall, ceiling, door and all
cabinets are knotty pine! The whole house has already been finshed by
the previous owner. However it is terribly dark and we need an easy
solution to lighten it up without sanding the whole house! I heard you
can whitewash and still get some of the wood grain showing through, but
can it be done with finish already on the walls? Any suggestions or
help would be much appreciated!

Jill

Whitewashing Knotty Pine
 

wrote:
We have a house at the beach and EVERY wall, ceiling, door and all
cabinets are knotty pine! The whole house has already been finshed by
the previous owner. However it is terribly dark and we need an easy
solution to lighten it up without sanding the whole house! I heard you
can whitewash and still get some of the wood grain showing through, but
can it be done with finish already on the walls? Any suggestions or
help would be much appreciated!

If it's already finished you'll be doing some sanding. If you want the
wood grain to show through you'll be sanding (or stripping, or more
likely both) a LOT. Before painting you'll want to scuff it up at the
very least so the paint will stick well. How dark? Does it look like
it's been stained?

JP

Whitewashing Knotty Pine
 

Jay Pique wrote:
wrote:
We have a house at the beach and EVERY wall, ceiling, door and all
cabinets are knotty pine! The whole house has already been finshed by
the previous owner. However it is terribly dark and we need an easy
solution to lighten it up without sanding the whole house! I heard you
can whitewash and still get some of the wood grain showing through, but
can it be done with finish already on the walls? Any suggestions or
help would be much appreciated!

If it's already finished you'll be doing some sanding. If you want the
wood grain to show through you'll be sanding (or stripping, or more
likely both) a LOT. Before painting you'll want to scuff it up at the
very least so the paint will stick well. How dark? Does it look like
it's been stained?

JP

Yes it has been stained. We tried sanding a wall... we ended up
sanding a 2ft by 5ft sections as a 'test', it took forever and broke
one sander! The house is well over 50 years old and I am sure the
stain is as well! I was hoping we could lighten it up without killing
ourselves doing it! Drywall is looking better and better. Thanks for
the insight!