Distressing Wood Doors for a Spanish Home: How To Tips!

“Hey guys today, I’m sharing a collection of images of a couple of talented Artisans distressing wood doors.  Happened to be in oceanfront home, here in beautiful Santa Barbara.

Thought I would share some tips and tricks for what they were doing in these photos.  And, get you kind of caught up on a couple of the different techniques that I’ve seen working in Spanish home design since 2003.

So, in these images the company that the homeowners and the general contractor had subcontracted, they were actually painters and they were using paint scrapers.  So, you see the yellow handled tool that they’re using- they have very sharp blades in them, and you can just… you know- scrape, and literally scrape the surface of the wood.

These are solid alder wood, but the technique would work on different types of wood, as well.  And then just a series of sanding and scraping.  And I’ve even been on another project- a client wanted a piece of brand-new furniture for her Spanish interior to look like an old antique hutch. 

And so, we brought that piece of furniture to another local company that distresses wood, and it was just fascinating. I talked to the owner for quite some time, and he was just showing me all these different tools that he uses.  Basically, like a cabinet shop with all these unique and unusual tools, handmade tools that he has made himself.

Some of them actually looked kind of “Medieval”. There was one mallet that I remember that had all these nails that were poked into the end of this wooden hammer, basically.  And all the nails were all knarled and shaped, and you know going in any which way direction.  I said “what the heck was that for” and he said, “oh wormholes… I just tap tap tap tap tap, you know- the wood in different areas, and it makes the wood look like it has had some worm hole damage”.

And, there were other tools. You can actually put a bent old nail on its side and hammer that into the wood surface.  What else did I see?  Basically, you know… there’s little chains that you can whip around, you know little tools that you would never think.  And basically, you’re just trying to… (depending on your project of course), how crazy (chuckles) are you trying to make the surface.

Some people want it to look like the furniture or the door has been around forever, and so around the handles the door hardware where you grab the door it can have a bunch of chink marks, and goofy messed up parts to the door- just simply because, over the course of 100 years you know, that’s the part of the door that would be beat up the most.

And so, I have been tripping over my words today. I’m basically just trying to teach you to think outside the box, and just have fun with it. (Chuckles) I would advise that you test your theories and these techniques on the backside of a door, or even get a piece of wood and beat up a scrap piece of wood.  And get to know what these tools do.

With these guys, I didn’t feel sorry for them because they seemed to be having so much fun.  But there was over 60 doors that they did for this beachfront home, here in beautiful Santa Barbara.

So, come on back (as I always say in each of these blog posts), I have no idea what I’m gonna post next. It’s just kinda like whatever I feel like digging out of the treasure trove of photos that I’ve collected over many, many years.

So have fun with your distressing project, and come back and learn some more”—Jeff Doubet, October 5, 2025