Dollhouse rustic dining table

Let’s turn this miniatures.com unfinished wood table into something extra special! Keep in mind you can change your paint color or your stain color to anything you wish. 

Mark the width of the planks that you would like on top of your table with a pencil on a scrap piece of paper. 

Make an indent with your knife at the ends of the table then use the back of your knife with a metal ruler to make a line in the wood. Take your time, nice and slow, so you don’t veer away from the ruler. (The wood grain may pull your blade tip away.) 

Then use a needle tool to make the indent deeper and repeat with the back of your knife again to get out any splinters. You want a nice, smooth divot in the wood to simulate planks. 

Sand your table smooth then stain your wood with the ’Driftwood’ stain shown. It does go on with a yellowish tint, but will dry more brown/gray. Let your stain dry completely. 

Next, use a sharp needle tool to make gouges and indents in the wood planks so that they appear to be more aged, sort of like old barn wood. You want your gouges a bit deep because the paint needs to stay in them. You can also use screwdrivers and other strong metal tools to make indents. I used tweezers. I went harsher with my indents but you can also make them more understated.

Apply your paint so that it fills in all the gouges and indents. Let the paint dry completely. 

Now make a sanding block by stapling sandpaper onto a wood block. I started with a coarse sandpaper and finished with a finer one.

Sand down the top of your table just enough to take some paint off and leave exposed wood.

Go back into the space between the ‘planks’ with the back of your knife and the needle tool. You don’t want dust or splinters in there. I also used a coarse brush to clear away any dust.

To finish, I buffed the table top with a clean cotton cloth. This gave it a nice natural shine.