First I sanded the entire surface and sides of the wood using my beloved Ryobi hand sander. Then I dusted it off with a soft brush.

I added a coat of Bleached Sand. I thought about giving it a really good coat of paint, but I was pretty smitten with the way it looked with all the little nooks and crannies. So I just painted until I liked it.

I ran a dry rag over the still damp paint. I wanted to removed any excess paint and dry it off, while giving it a more aged look from the start.

I used a dry brush to randomly add Spa Blue.

Applied the stain…

… and wiped it off, and just kept doing this until I was happy with the results.

… and wiped it off, and just kept doing this until I was happy with the results. I didn’t want it to be dark, just a little aged.

It was easier to show you how I made the dots by using a video…

I let it dry overnight, then dry brushed some cocoa carefully over the starfish to make it a little darker and make it look a bit sandy.