Have some dark wood paneling of your own that you'd like to brighten up? Read on for step-by-step instructions.

1) Using a medium-sized paintbrush, mix paint and water in 1 container.

2) Keep 1 container of just water around your work area so you can dilute your mixture if needed. Having extra water handy is always convenient, whether it's for diluting your mixture or cleaning your brush.

3) Apply the mixture to the wall using a medium-sized paintbrush.

4) Add more paint or water to the mixture depending on what you would like to see more of. Add more water if you'd like to see more wood and more paint if you're seeing too much wood.

5) Once you've applied the wash, you'll want to remove the majority of it with a very-well-rung-out sponge.

6) When using the sponge, it's important to avoid obvious stopping points — points on the wall where you can tell a stroke was interrupted. The wall should look like it's been sponged from top to bottom in one uniform motion.

7) If the wash seems to be bubbling over the existing finish on the wood, 2 coats of wash will hide the bubbles. In this case, you'd still use the sponge in your final process to take off the existing wet paint.