Antique Furniture Style

Antique furniture is furniture that is relic from the past. The antique furniture is old, ancient, and already used for hundreds of years. The real antique furniture is not widely available in the furniture market. The real antique furniture may be only available in the museums or kept by the collector of antiques and marketed as an antique collection. The antique furniture in the market there is the antique-style furniture or antique reproduction furniture. They are actually the new furniture products but are made to mimic the appearance and model of the antique furniture. The antique-style furniture is made with a special technique to make the appearance like the old ancient furniture. The furniture is made as if it is an old product that has been used for a long time. The antique-style furniture is still widely available in the furniture market together with other furniture, such as the contemporary and futuristic styles. 

 

To make the antique furniture, you need to consider the antique aspect in the furniture product. Here are some points that need to be considered when you are making the antique furniture.

distressed furniture

• The design and model.

The design is the first step to making antique furniture. You will never make an antique piece of furniture without proper design. The model of antique furniture always refers to the model of furniture in the past. There are many models of furniture are popular in history of furniture in the past that you can use as a reference for the design of antique furniture. You can explore the classic model and other models from the past and do some modification to design the antique reproduction furniture.

• Finishing process

The finishing process is done to make the color and appearance of the furniture. There are many techniques in the finishing that can be used to make the antique-looking furniture. The old look, dirty and dusty, can be produced with antique finishing techniques. There are also many special finishing material are available to make many antique effect.

antique white furniture

• Physical distress

Physical distress is physical action to create the antique effects. Physical distress is a "controlled destruction" of the furniture products to mimic the damage to furniture due to the long time age and usage. Many physical damages can be mimicked by physical distress such as wormholes, wear marks, gouges, dents, cracks, rasping, etc. There are some tools that are created to do the physical distress, such as nails, chains, knives, chisels, etc. The physical distress helps to produce a more natural and dramatic antique effect in the product.

• Stain distress

Stain distress is the application of stain to produce the impression of dirty and antique looks. The spatter, cow tail marks, rope marks, and watermarks are the distressed stains. The stain marks together with the physical distress are the main techniques to make antique and old-looking furniture.

There are also some finishing materials that are specially designed to produce the antique effect. You can use the materials to make the antique-looking furniture.

• Glaze

Glaze is the wiping stain that is applied between the clear coat. Glaze is very flexible to color and fill the wood pores and grain. In the antique finishing, glaze is the material to fill and coloring the cracks, holes, dents and carvings to mimics the patina. Patina is the antique appearance formed by the dust mixed with wax that fills in pores, cracks and wood grain. The wax is usually used to clean and polish the furniture mixed with the dust to fill the inside part of the furniture to make it look special, antique, and old and natural.
In modern finishing, the effect of patina can be created by glaze application. Glaze can be brushed and wiped to fill and color in the pores, grain, dents, and holes inside of carving to form a “patina appearance.”. Glaze is also the flexible stain to make the distressed stain. Many dirty looks and stain looks can be made by glaze, such as: rope mark, cow tail marks, spatter, etc.

Some special glazes can also produce a more dramatic antique effect, such as dirty-looking and dusty looked. 

 antique crackle furniture

• Crackle paint.

Crackle paint or crackle lacquer is the finishing material to form a crackle effect in the finish. There is some crackle paint available, the oil-based crackle, thinner-based, or water-based crackle paint, which can be used to produce the crackle effect with many different crackle effects. The crackle paint is used together with glaze to make an antique crack paint finish.

 antique chair

• Veiling lacquer

Veiling lacquer is a finishing material that can be used to create effects like the spider web. It is used together with the glaze and stain to form the antique, old, and dirty look.