120 year old refinished barnwood floors or not?

People are loving the vintage and rustic look of aged wood. I'm all for re-purposing and using the real thing if possible. But what if your like me and live in an area where you don't see people demolition 100 year old barns.

I say fake it then.

There's lot's of different methods for getting that perfect vintage/ rustic look for your next project.

Here's mine quick and easy.

For the sake of this tutorial I'm going to grab a couple of old pieces of fencing that have fading stain and are ready for the trash heap.

stage 1 trash heap fence boards

I'm making a frame for a sign project and it will work perfect to demonstrate this sought after aged look.

stage 2 the project sign

Now that I have a ready project surface to work with I want to sand the piece to get out the pronounce stained area's and uniform the surface a bit (rough sand 60grit).
 

stage 3 rough sand make it uniform

Now that my work piece is ready to go its time to love on it with a few things; hammer, chain, punch, screwdriver, bat... whatever beat it!!
 

stage 4 beat the piece

After loving on your work take a dark stain like ebony to accentuate the damage area's. Dapple a chip brush in the grooves, dips, and gouges then wipe off. As you see I wasn't concerned at getting all the ebony stain off. A little left makes the piece more aged.
 

stage 5 accentuate the damage

I love deep rich stains like dark walnut (that's what I stained this project with). Again with a chip brush stain your work and wipe off excess then let dry.

stage 6 stain project

At this stage there's two directions you can go. Direction 1; leave the piece more rustic and stop now. direction 2 (as shown) add poly and keep finishing. This is the first coat of poly, let it dry, lightly sand and re-apply poly as many times to achieve your desired look.

stage 7 keep finishing with poly

We're done. It's quick. It's easy and it looks vintage. 120 year old finished barnwood floors or trash heap fence boards...?

stage 8 the finished product

Again there's many different ways to fake it on your project. I say go for it, experiment, in the end whatever works for you.