Antique Pine # 2 , the Combination of Latex Paint and NC Finish

Pine wood is quite popular in the woodworking industry. He has been widely used as raw material for furniture since many centuries ago. The pine wood is easy to machined, drilled, and handled in the woodworking process. But the wood has high porosity; he will absorb a lot of finishing materials to produce a smooth surface. The stain application should be done carefully since its high porosity. Too-wet stain is risky to get blotchy.

Now in this article we want to share about antique pine finish. In this finish, latex paint is used as the first stain. The latex paint as the stain gives some advantage. It will bring the antique finish, and since it is thick material, we don’t need to worry about the blotchy problem. The paint is combined with a glaze and NC clear coating to make the antique finish. 

Here is the finishing process.

• Physical distress.

The physical is the first step to making the antique impression. Use the stones, files, chains, and hammers to do the distress. The heavy distress is needed. Start with the file to rasp at the edges and to make some marks in the surface. Then we can use the chain and hammer to hit the surface. Finally, we can use the rock to picture the physical abuses. Make sure the distress marks are random and natural to mimic the long time used. See our previous article: Physical distress for wood furniture finishing.

• Application of latex paint.

Choose the light brown or cream latex paint. Agitate the paint and make sure it is well mixed; add some water if necessary. Brush the latex paint to layer on the wood evenly. Make sure the paint is well applied until it fills in the pores, gaps, and crevices. Let the paint dry.

After the paint is dry, then sand the paint, clean the paint at the surfaces, but leave the paint inside the hole, pores, grain, and distressed mark. The latex paint should fill in the wood pores, grains, dents, holes, crevices, and gaps.
Check the antique effect we got. Make sure we get the antique effect, make sure all the distress marks are filled with the latex paint, and make sure the wood surface is cleaned to get the clarity of the wood finish.

• Sealer application.

A layer of clear coating is required to protect the latex paint. The sealer is used since it will be sanded to provide the smooth finish. The clear coating has to be applied by spray. The brush application will resolve the latex paint and damage the antique effect that has been formed. Spray two layers of NC sealer and let it dry. Sand the sealer layer with # 280 or # 320 sandpaper to get the smooth surface. 

• Dry brush glaze.

Glaze application is needed to enhance the antique look. Use the glaze with a dark brown color (van dyke brown or dark umber). Do dry brush to burnish the edges and the distress part. The dark glaze will darken and enhance the antique effect. Some more antique effects, such as cowtails or spatters, can also be made to make a more interesting antique effect. See our previous article: Dry brush glaze

• Application of top coat.

The top coat is the last layer to provide the protection and to build the sheen of the finishing. Use the low-sheen top coat as the final layer. Apply 1 layer of 10 sheen or 20 sheen NC top coat by wet spray to the finish. Let it dry and check the film surface; make sure an even and smooth surface is obtained. If the surface is rough, then we need to sand the top coat layer and apply 1 more coat.