HOME > REFINISHING > DECORATIVE WOOD FINISHES

Endless are the possibilities for decorative or faux finishes. Textured, distressed, crackled, metalicized, are a few of the special effects available. Faux wood grain, faux animal skin, faux tortoise shell and faux marble finishes can all be applied to wood surfaces. The range of colors, color combinations, glazing and toning options is beyond calculation. Even the paints used can vary, a crackle finish made with milk (casein based) paint has a different look than a crackle with a modern paint.

So, what is the point of all this? Simply to say, if you have some idea of what you would like a piece of your furniture to look like, we can most likely help you. Since we are not a production shop, we don't have samples of say, the twelve decorative finishes we offer. There are many more than twelve decorative finishes we can accomplish successfully. However, since we deal primarily in old furniture made to feature the beauty of the wood, we don't get too many requests for a decorative wood finish. But we love it when we do because we enjoy the opportunity to express the artistic impulses that drive us. Please give us the opportunity to help you bring art into your home on the canvas of a piece of furniture.

To help you envision your own project, we offer some samples of what we have done for others here.

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We had the liberty to be creative with this piece and thought the golden orange accents worked very well with the overall burnt sienna coloration.

How To Preserve The Beauty Of An Ageless Design

Creativity is expressed both in imagining and creating something new, and in reproducing something old. Both endeavors are deeply satisfying. In our trade we are often doing the latter as is illustrated here. One very important element of being able to reproduce something old is the ability to see what you are looking at. That sounds kind of silly but it is absoluteley true.

A customer brought in this dining room set for us to restore (more pictures on our Dining Room Sets page). They did not want it stripped but wanted the finish renewed. The first step in that process is to clean the surface. After cleaning we discovered the dark green accents on the carved portions. The picture below left is what we discovered after cleaning.

On closer examination, we could see the sparkle of some gilding materials interspersed within the green. To restore this finish we then laid down a base of a dark green, applied a pale gold gilding material onto the raised areas then used a glaze of a mix of raw umber and raw sienna to mellow the tones and blend the features.

We were very happy with how this turned out, but what made it so gratifying was the delight of our customers when they saw the finished result.

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How To Turn An Ugly And Beat Up Eighties Era Beige Chair Into A Unique And Beautiful Accent Piece

Once again we demonstrate we are not photographers at heart. We didn't think to photograph this chair until after we had hidden the ugly beige with a nearly transparent whitewash coating.

The next step was to create a green accent paint and fill all the routed lines with it. This chair had seen very hard use and was heavily worn. We accented the wear features with a dark brown glaze to create a naturally distressed look.

Another coat of a nearly transparent whitewash toner softened the effects of the last two steps, followed by a clear matte finish. We think the upholsterer had the right idea to complete this chair.

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How To Give New Life To A Tired And Old, Yet Nevertheless Beloved Friend

This gaily painted mare surely did double duty, both conducting one young princess on rides through the villages and countryside surrounding her castle, as well as giving her an appreciation for beautiful things. The queen of this household had a clear vision of pinks and yellows we were able to apply to the wooden surface of this gentle mount.

How To Turn A Run-Of-The-Mill Country Style Table Into A Distinctive Decorating Feature

If you can see through the red, the form of this table is one you have seen in dozens of homes. For someone who doesn't like to be ordinary, we think we accomplished a very noteworthy statement of uniqueness. These photographs are pre-digital and lack the detail we would wish for, but you should be able to see the distressing, some natural, some creative. The customer was delighted with the end result as we hope you would be if we successfully carried out your vision for dressing up a plain jane.

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Now that you have seen what we have done for others, what can we do for you? CONTACTING AND FINDING US

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