Ok I know I did an easy paneling backdrop but it still wasn't the look I wanted, so I experimented a little bit. I started with a board I got for free which was used for the top of a skid full of laminate flooring to give a sample of what the flooring looked like. (I got it for free from the local closeout hardware store) It had a slight raised grain in it, but I'm sure you could get the same effect from a piece of paneling or some boards you could screw together.
- Make sure your wood/panel is either stained or painted dark brown. My piece of paneling was already dark, so i could skip that step :p
- roughly paint on 2 coats of white paint. use a flat or eggshell paint to minimize the glare in photographing it.
- then i painted the lines to look like the separate boards. i accidentally used a light brown and that didn't show up very well, so i had to go over it again with my dark brown paint.
- let everything dry......
- now sand it and rough it up! Don't be afraid to put extra pressure in some places to make it look more weathered
- next, make a half-water/ half-paint mixture out of your white paint to create an easy "whitewash". Lightly paint over your whole board, lines and all.
- then take an old rag or paper towel and lightly wipe off the whitewash. Or if you like the way it looks, leave it!
- i repeated the sanding & whitewash steps 3 times to get the look i wanted, but you don't have to if you're happy with the way it turned out.
- Then i roughed it up even more by taking a screwdriver and scraping some lines in it.
- And thats it!!!