how to "antique" a white piece of furniture

[peach]

I am redoing a pedastal table...

I sanded it, primed, painted it white and sanded it to make it a bit distressed. I wanted to antique it, so I rubbed on some wood stain and wiped it off, but it is not the look I am going for. It gives the whole piece a dirty, brown wash. I just wanted some brown on the edges, in the corners, and for the rest to stay white.

What do I use? Watered down brown paint? Don't say dark wax because I don't want to wax it - I want to be able to refinish it down the line or touch up and wax makes it almost impossible - you can't repaint I have been told.

Underneath the piece is a blonde wood, which is why just sanding it down is not giving me the look I want. 

[magdala]

It sounds like you have too much stain. Can you take a furniture soap and rub off more of the stain?

[auntie]

You want glaze.

You wipe it on and then off leaving as much of the color as you want where you want it.

[mcc]

I've done that with stain and it came off with some light sanding. I second the glaze suggestion because it can be more easily wiped off.

ETA: I did that with a table and just wanted the sanded parts to be stained so I applied the stain with a q-tip to "spot stain" it and then wiped it off.  It worked well.