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If you have purchased some bare wood furniture then you will need to finish it properly. This isn’t a difficult process but there are some steps that you will need to follow. The amount of work involved will depend on the quality of the piece you have chosen. If there are blemishes or knots in the wood, these will need to be treated as otherwise they will affect your finish. Knots are easy to fix, you just need to paint them with a shellac based sealer.

If there are any holes or scratches, you will need to fill them with filler. If you intend to paint the unit it doesn’t really matter what color filler you use. But if you intend to use a varnish then you need to find purpose made wood filler in as close a match to the wood color as possible. This will result in the patching being less visible.

In the unlikely event that you have a big hole to fill, you need to use the filler in stages. You may have seen an unpainted wood furniture piece that you just couldn’t resist but perhaps it had been damaged in storage. Filling deep holes is possible and when the product has been properly finished you would never know it was there but you have to be careful. You can’t just put a lump of filler into the hole and hope for the best. This may be the quick way of doing things but it is likely to crack and ruin the overall finish.

So take it slowly, allow each layer to harden before adding any more. If you have had to use filler, you will have to sand the unit down before painting or vanishing. Always vacuum the units following sanding as otherwise you run the risk of dust particles upsetting the finish on your bare wood furniture.

Find out more about bare wood furniture from an enthusiast who’s been working with it for more than ten years! Check us out at http://www.bare-wood-furniture.com!

Author: Chris Hartpence
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

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Staining bare wood furniture is relatively easy to do so long as you have properly prepared the wood surface. A wood stain soaks into the fibers of the wood but provides no protection so must be finished. There are various types of stains available such as oil, spirit, water and acrylic.

The type of stain you use will depend on the wood, the finish you are trying to achieve and also your experience in staining wood furniture. For example, spirit stains dry very rapidly so it can be difficult to get even coverage. Most beginners end up with darker patches of overlapping color which is not quite the look they wanted to achieve. Water stains can only be used after the wood has first been sanded down.

Staining allows you to color the furniture piece any color you wish as you can mix and match compatible stains and dyes. You would seal an oil stain with sanding sealer before applying varnish. Don’t use a spirit stain if you intend French polishing the piece of furniture. If using water or acrylic stains you must allow them to dry properly. This means leaving the piece for at least 48 hours. Otherwise when you apply the sealant, you can get a white haze effect on the wood. Always test on an inconspicuous place first before applying the sealant to the whole unit.

Be careful if you want to stain furniture darker as the wet stain will always look darker than the dried finish. You do not want to apply more than two coats as it may become patchy. You need to try and get as good a match to the color you want to achieve as possible the first time round.

Staining wood furniture takes time and patience but the finished results will be worth it.

Find out more about bare wood furniture from an enthusiast who’s been working with it for more than ten years! Check us out at http://www.bare-wood-furniture.com!

Author: Chris Hartpence
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

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So you’ve taken the plunge and purchased a piece of bare wood furniture. Congratulations! It’s 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 start to work, it’s time to plan! A little investment in time now will save you a great number of headaches down the road.

Where bare wood furniture is concerned, you essentially have three options 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 maximize the beauty and functionality of the piece.

The simplest thing you can to do “finish” your new piece of bare wood furniture is to leave it 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 commonly used on a wide variety of bare wood), but there are other products available as well. Always, always, always test first by applying a small amount 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 entire piece.

If you decide to paint your bare wood furniture, you have quite a lot to think about, aside from color selection. Type of paint, for example. If a piece is to be positioned in a bathroom, you’ll probably want 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 offer a good balance of attractiveness 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 type of border or scrollwork on your bare wood furniture. If you’re not particularly artistically inclined, there are a number 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 lots of options. Of course, if you are artistically inclined or know someone who is, a hand painted border is a good way 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 intend to go, again, you’ve got a number of decisions to make, beginning with the type of stain you’ll use. Stains come in oil-based, water-based, or gel, and while my personal preference runs to oil based, you’ll want to experiment to find out which works best for you. Obviously, you don’t want to experiment directly on your new piece of furniture, so I recommend buying an unfinished wood shelf of the same type of wood from your local home store 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!

To learn more about this and related topics, see Bare Wood Furniture at http://www.bare-wood-furniture.com.

Author: Chris Hartpence
Article Source: EzineArticles.com