DIY White Washed Clothespins Tutorial

You guys know I love good finds at the antique mall. As much as I love my finds I love that I get super inspired whenever I get to walk around and look at everybody's antique booths. I love to see what other people are making, what colors they are using, what phrases they are using, etc. Whenever I am there I always take pictures of things I may not want to buy but am inspired to make. That's exactly what happened to these NEST clothespins. I love the whole NEST phase right now. Shane and I have always been known as love birds. In our wedding we used some bird decorations so they are really special for us. So, now that they are really popular I am loving that there are so many antique booths selling them. And now I am loving the NEST decals. So when I saw these clothespins I had to make some of them for myself.

I have been trying out white washing lately. I used the technique to make my knob coat rack. And then I basically painted everything in sight! Eeh! So I decided to try it on these clothespins after I wrote NEST or LOVE or HOME on them. Let me show you what I mean.

These are the ones from the antique mall. Sorry it's not the best picture, but I always feel like everyone is watching me if I take a picture in the antique mall.

I started out buying this big bag of clothespins from Walmart. I think I got them for around $2 for 50 of them. I thought that was a really good deal. Thankfully I already had the black painters pen.

If you want to white wash yours too then you will also need white paint (I used white chalk paint), some water, and a paint brush.

Pour some paint in your cup and mix in some water. You really don't need very much for the clothespins. I accidentally made way to much so I HAD to paint everything in sight so I didn't waist any. At least that's what I told myself while I painted a wood plank, wood cubes, some frames, some terra cota pots, etc. Like I said before you really don't need very much of your mixture if you are just painting the clothespins. I would start with about 1 tspn of paint to 1/2 tspn of water. 

I really like the way this Waverly White chalk paint worked. I really made the antique feel pop.

Now set your paint mixture aside and grab your Painters pen. Then write your word onto the clothespin. 

I wrote NEST, HOME, and LOVE

Then grab a wet wipe or a wet paper towel and rub it across the word while the ink is still wet. Rub gently because the ink will come off so be aware of how rustic you want this to look. Then rub the excess ink on the towel all around the clothespin. This will really bring out the shabby chicness look. Once you get the desired look you are done with this step.

I rubbed mine down until it looked like the picture below.

Then I grabbed my brush and dipped it into my paint mixture and painted my clothespin.

I love the way this turned out! It turned out way better then I expected. I just kind of played around with how much I rubbed the ink off, and how much paint I put on it to figure out the look I was going for. So have some fun playing around with it to figure out the look you are going for.

I also made some with just the white wash. I have them on my photo holder in my room. 

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