A small whitewashing project

As you all know, I just switched my daughters' bedrooms recently.  Emma's room is complete, I thought I still needed curtains but have since decided that the faux wood white blinds look pretty and I don't want to clutter up the room with more fabric.  So, I was left with Santina's room that was pretty bare.  Even though she isn't going to be here much longer, she still needs a nice place to stay when she comes home, right?

I'm too overwhelmed (and broke!) with things to do at the moment to think about painting it and buying new bedding.  I'd love to paint it two shades of a very nuetral beige and get some bright teal bedding, but again, budget, budget, budget.  I have to work with the purple, which still is pretty, just reminds of a younger childs room since it was a nursery at one time.  I found a cheap purple coverlet to attempt to match a bit.  The chair rail is white and so is the dresser and nightstand.  

My plan all along was to buy an old door and repaint it, hang it sideways and use it as a headboard.  Alas, I realized I couldn't exactly do that with the chair rail where it was.  I kind of put that idea on the backburner until I came across this:

Please click on the pic to get a better shot, each space has a design inlay carved on this old rustic wood shutter.  The wood is just beautiful, but was just a bit to boring for me and didn't fit it with purple and white.  You know, I love me some paint!  I didn't want to just paint it and have it lose it's rusticness (is that a word?) so I decided to do a whitewash although I've never done it before.

It's really quite simple and there's no messing it up.  I didn't want stark white, even though it would have matched.  I thought an off white would help keep the old look of it.  I add a tiny bit of ASCP Old White leftover, I'm actually suprised I still had the can, I kind of thought I had already gotten rid of it there was sooooooooo little in there.  I added some water and stirred.  I dabbed just a small amount on the brush, then rubbed the first stroke on a piece of cloth, then just dragged the brush all over, going with AND against the grain of the wood.  Going against the grain of the wood allows the paint to settle on the top grooves.  I just kept at it until I got the look I desired.

There are spots where the paint is thicker and my original plan was to sand them down, but really does paint wear evenly?  NO!  So, I left it as is and hung it just over the chair rail.  It's a combo headboard/art piece.

Again, please click on the pic to get a bigger view.  The wood is still very evident, I just toned down the "brown-ness" of it, if that makes sense??

I had, had, had to buy this when I saw it.  My usual furniture/home decor motto is that something else will always come along if this isn't the right time.  However, I don't see things like this coming along often, it's so unique.  And, at $35 how could I NOT buy it?