Using Wax to Age wood

I have been in love with this giant wood pillar base for years now. Several of my friends have one and every time I saw theirs I coveted it. This one belongs to my pal Brenda. After deciding I could not hold out any longer I went on the hunt to find one of my own to no avail. It then dawned on me to ask my friend Robyn who I order my Annie Sloan paint from. She has a home decor shop in Tampa Florida- Robyn Story Designs. I lucked up. She carried them in her shop and was more than happy to ship one out to me.

I am head over heels for this display piece. It is HUGE! It looks to be hand carved and the top is seared so it has the divine smell of burnt wood. I know some do not like that smell but it reminds me of fall and all the wonderful smells that go along with it. You can not tell from the pic because of the poor lighting but the bottom of the pillar was a lot lighter and orange colored. I wish I would have waited to complete this project during the day for better lighting but once I get something in my head that I want to do I just do it.

Here is a close up of the before. My mission was to tone down the orange and darken up the lighter areas so that it would blend better with the top of the pillar and look even more aged.

I decided the easiest and quickest way to achieve the look I was going for was to use wax. I recently received some Miss Mustardseed's Wax to try out with my Annie Sloan order so I figured it would be perfect for this project. I have never used Miss Mustardseed's Wax before and I was surprised that it has no smell. Yes, you heard me right a wax that does NOT smell! It is also buttery smooth which I love because it makes it super easy to apply. I applied the basic/clear wax to the base of the pillar first and then added the Antiquing wax. 

After the Antiquing Wax was added I had the bright idea adding some white wax and well it was way too white. This was not the project for it but thankfully I was able to quickly take it back off with some clear wax. I will save the white wax for another project.

Here is the finish I ended up with. 

Now the base of the pillar matches the top perfectly! This project literally took me all of 10 minutes. I use a lot of different methods for aging wood, wax by far is the easiest.