There is a lot of great, unfinished furniture available on the market. In fact, Ron purchased the chair that he used to demonstrate this project over the Internet. The process of finishing a piece of unfinished furniture is basically the same as it would be if it were a stripped piece of furniture.
Click Here For a list of what
you will need in order to complete this project. |
 |
| |
|
1. Wet down chair:
- The first step was a little unusual - Ron gave the chair a bath. Using hot water and a clean sponge, he wiped the chair with a generous amount of water. When the water was applied to the wooden chair, the wood fibers swelled and stood up, looking something like whiskers. When Ron sanded the chair later, these fibers would be cut off very cleanly.
|
 |
| |
|
- The second reason for wetting the wood was that it would allow the stain to penetrate more evenly by opening the pores of the wood.
|
 |
| |
|
- As the chair began to dry, Ron showed us some of the wood fibers that would be cut off in the sanding process.
|
 |
| |
|
2. Sanding:
- For the flat parts of the chair, like the chair seat and edge, Ron used 220-grit sandpaper and sanded with the grain of the wood. Going against the grain would create scratches that would really show up when the stain was applied to the wood.
|
 |
| |
|
- For sanding the turnings, spindles, legs and stretchers, Ron used a plastic steel wool product.
|
 |
| |
|
- Ron still needed something that would get into the tiny details on the legs.
|
 |
| |
|
- For those Ron used jute twine and wrapped it around the crevasses of the chair legs.
|
 |
| |
|
- As the twine was pulled back and forth, the coarse outer surface worked to smooth out the grooves.
|
 |
| |
|
3. Stain:
- Before applying the stain to the wood, Ron conducted a test. This was important because each piece of wood accepts stain differently. The best place to do the test was on the underside of the chair seat.
|
 |
| |
|
- Ron mixed together two colors that he thought he would like. One was darker and one was more of a medium brown. He poured both colors into a third container and stirred them together.
|
 |
| |
|
- Ron brushed the stain onto the bottom side of the chair and then let it sit for a few minutes.
|
 |
| |
|
- Ron used a soft, clean cotton cloth to wipe off the excess stain. The color that remained was pretty close to what the finished chair color would end up looking like. Ron liked it, so he was ready to proceed with staining the whole chair.
|
 |
| |
|
- After applying the stain to the chair with a brush, Ron let it dry for several hours. Overall, the chair looked great, but there was a slight problem.
|
 |
| |
|
- In some places, the color appeared blotchy, with darker color in some spots and lighter in others. This can be a common result when staining furniture.
|
 |
| |
|
- To even out the color, Ron mixed up what he called toner made from orange shellac and tinting concentrates or tinting colors. The two tints that Ron selected were raw umber and burnt sienna.
|
 |
