So you have taken the plunge and purchased a piece of bare wood furniture. Congrats! It is an excellent value for the money, and with proper care, can last for generations.
Hopefully, before you made the investment, you already had a clear idea what you wanted to do with the piece, but if not, then before you pick up the first tool and begin to work, it's time to plan! A bit investment in time now will save you a great number of headaches down the road.
Where bare wood furniture is concerned, you essentially have 3 alternatives for finishing the piece, and they are:
Leave the wood "naked"
Paint it
Stain it
Each of these options requires a bit of work on your part in order to protect your investment and increase the beauty and performance of the piece.
The simplest thing you can do is just "finish" your new piece of bare wood furniture is to let it stay in its natural state. If you choose this option, you'll probably want to protect the wood by coating it in some type of wood protecting oil (linseed oil is normally used on a wide variety of bare wood), but there're other products available as well. Always, always, always try out first by applying a small quantity of the oil you chose to an unseen corner of the wood to ensure that it won't cause any discoloration or other reaction in the wood. Once assured of this, you can safely apply your chosen protective oil to the whole piece.
If you choose to paint your bare wood furniture, you have quite many to think about, other than color selection. Type of paint, for example. If a piece is to be positioned in a bathroom, you'll possibly desire to gravitate toward a glossy paint, as these stand up well to the high moisture environment. For high traffic/heavily used pieces, semi-gloss paints provide a good balance of good looks and durability, and if the piece is intended for a lower traffic/lower intensity environment, then flat or satin finishes will serve you well.
Now's also the time to consider whether or not you'll have any sort of border or scrollwork on your bare wood furniture. If you are not particularly artistically inclined, there're quite a lot of attractive stencils you can use, readily available at home stores (Lowe's, Home Depot), arts and craft stores (Michael's), and sometimes at chain retail outlets (Wal-Mart, Target), so you've got many options. Certainly, if you are artistically inclined or know someone who is, a hand painted border is a great strategy to really personalize the piece!
Finally, you might decide to stain your new piece of furniture. This is my personal favorite method of finishing pieces, even though it takes the longest, and if this is the direction you wish to go, again, you have got a number of decisions to make, beginning with the type of stain you will use. Stains come in oil-based, water-based, or gel, and while my own preference runs to oil based, you'll want to experiment to find out which works best for you. Obviously, you don't wish to experiment directly on your new piece of furniture, so I suggest buying an unfinished wood shelf of the same sort of wood from your local home shop and experiment on that. Once you make a firm selection, you can proceed with confidence and start working on your bare wood furniture direct.
Make a plan, have fun, and enjoy your new piece of bare wood furniture, no matter how you choose to finish it!
Chair Leg Caps - Preserving Your Wood Floor
Chair leg caps are the solution to those scratches that are found under your chairs all over your house. They are extremely cheap, typically around $10 for a bag of them, and they will save you from thousands of dollars of repairs down the road.
Exactly Why Is Mission Furniture So Popular?
You can choose from a range of different styles of unpainted furniture. Mission style furnishings have seen resurgence in popularity recently. If you cannot afford a genuine Stickley, there are plenty of reproduction pieces available.
Staining Wood Furniture - Distressing And Quite A Few Other Useful Recommendations To Help Enrich The Overall Look Of The Piece.
If you've taken a recent stroll through a "regular" furniture store lately (no bare wood furniture in sight), you've probably noticed that many of the more popular pieces are "weathered" or "distressed." It's the furniture equivalent of "stone washed jeans."
Bare Pine Pieces Of Furniture - Tips To Purchase The Best
Unfinished pine furniture can be made from a variety of softwoods. The correct term for the wood in a lot of "pine" products is Deal. This is a group of softwoods including pine, larch, fir, hemlock and spruce.
Ashley Home Furniture - 3 Motives To Buy Ashley Furniture
Are you considering buying Ashley home furniture? In this article we are going to give you 3 reasons to buy from the Ashley furniture company.
Important Considerations With Regards To Small Coffee Tables
It doesn't matter if you have small or big house, as long as you do everything to create the kind of atmosphere that is both homey and inviting. As you enter the living room, people will surely notice small coffee tables if you have placed these at prominent areas.
Transforming Cheap Coffee Tables Look And Feel More Elegant
Do you love how the interior of your home looks? What else do you think would add beauty and life to the place? There are many products and pieces of furniture that may do the trick for this purpose.
Choices For Oak Benches Inside And Outside The House
Oak benches are a fantastic addition to a home because they look great and can be used inside or out. It is an inexpensive type of wood providing fancy designs and giving you more options.
Several Key Benefits Of Internet Unfinished Furniture Shops
Whenever possible, I would recommend shopping for bare wood furniture at a brick and mortar shop vs. buying from one of your area's online unfinished furniture stores. There are two primary reasons for this.
Shops Where You Will Be Able To Purchase Contemporary Dining Chairs And Why You Must Have A Set Of Your Own
Where can you actually buy contemporary dining chairs to best match your existing dining room design for an inexpensive price.
Wire Rack Shelving Uses
Do you want to buy wire rack shelving? This type of shelving is used in business as well as domestic situations. If you are in an industrial setting there are many different uses for wire shelving most of them involving storing products or raw materials.
Are You Making Use Of Pallet Rack Shelving In Your Business
Are you using pallet rack shelving in your business? This system has been used by commercial enterprises for over 100 years and the reason is simple. It works, is convenient and is cost effective.