Antique pine finishing for furniture

Pinewood is very well known in the wood furniture industry. The pine wood is lot used to make furniture. There are many species of pine and each has their own characteristic. But in general pine has shallow and small pores and grain texture that makes it is easy to be finished in close pores finish. It has light yellow brown color base that provide flexibility to make any finish color. But it is a soft wood with high absorption properties to the finishing materials which sometimes cause difficulties in the finishing process, such as blotchy color. The pine wood also release oil from its knots that can cause problems in the finishing in the solid wood color. According to its character then we need to do the proper finish to get the maximum beauty from this wood.
To minimized the oil problem, then we have to avoid the solid color or wash color finish to this wood. The transparent color is good choice, its light base color give us easiness to make any color. But since it has high absorption to the stain, then we need to stain in the proper way. Now in this article we want to share about how to make antique brown pine finish.

Here is the finishing process step by step

 antique brown pine finish

•  Preparation at the unfinished wood.

Pine is a soft wood that has a high absorption to the stain. We need to make an even wood surface to avoid the color problem in the finishing. A good sanding is needed to produce finishing with good results. The wood out from the machinery should be sanded with #120 or  #120 grade sandpaper to form an even wood surface. After a smooth and even surface is obtained then continue the sanding with #150 grade sandpaper. The sanding with #180 grade is recommended to the wood preparation for the stain application. The pine wood fibers tend to stick to the sandpaper and blunt quickly the sandpaper. We need to replace the sandpaper more often for the sanding this wood.

The sanding should be done shortly before the finishing process is started because the wood tend to become rough after it is left for long time. The wood will absorb the water from its environment and raise its fibers to make rough surface.

•   Applications stain

Pine wood is wood that have high absorption to the stain that risk to make blotchy color. Since that we need to avoid "too wet stain" application. Too wet the stain will tend to produce too dark color, blotchy or dirty appearance.  We can mix the stain with some sealer to reduce the risk of blotchy color. The 5% to 10% sealer or top coat in the wood stain will help to reduce the stain penetration into the wood. It is the toner stain that will do as wood stain but with less absorption. Do stain application by spray and avoid spray stain too wet. Too wet stain is highly risk to make blotchy color. Brushing or wiping the stain is not recommended for the pine wood. The stain will wet the wood and make blotchy color. 

• Sealer application.

The sealer is layered on the stain to protect the stain and to build the film layer. The first sealer is needed to protect the stain as preparation for the glaze application. Apply the sealer by spray wet coat overall. Let the sealer dry and sand the sealer to make smooth surface. Use the #280 or #320 grade stearate sandpaper and sand to the entire surface of sealer coat. Make sure we get the smooth surface at the overall surface. The rough surfaces will absorb more glaze and make dark or blotchy color.

• Glaze application

The glaze is applied to produce depth and rich color finish.  Use glaze with dark brown color finish. Glaze can be applied by brush until it layer on the the entire surface evenly. Do some highlight to the glaze to make more life looked finishing. Wait until the glaze is thoroughly  dry and then we can continue with the next sealer application. See our previous article: how to apply glaze

• Second sealer

The second sealer is applied on the glaze to protect the color formed by the glaze and stain. Apply the sealer by spray and let it dry. Sand the second sealer to make smooth surface as the first sealer.

• Dry brush glaze

Dry brush the glaze on the sealer to make more antique finishing looked. The glaze is dry brushed to burnish and darken the edges to make more antique looked.

• Application of top coat

Top coat is the last coat to produce a smooth film finish and to form gloss of the finishing. Use the low sheen or medium gloss sheen top coat for this finish. Apply the top coat by spray wet coat evenly to overall surface. Wait until the top coat dry, and check the result. If we got the smooth finish film with even gloss then the finishing process has finished. If we haven't, then we can re sand the top coat layer and re spray the top coat.