Antique Pine Finishing for Furniture

Pinewood is very well known in the wood furniture industry. The pine wood is a lot used to make furniture. There are many species of pine, and each has their own characteristic. But in general, pine has shallow and small pores and grain texture that makes it easy to be finished with a close-pore finish. It has a light yellow-brown color base that provides flexibility to make any finish color. But it is a soft wood with high absorption properties to the finishing materials, which sometimes cause difficulties in the finishing process, such as blotchy color. The pine wood also releases oil from its knots that can cause problems in the finishing of the solid wood color. According to its character, then you will need the proper finish to get the maximum beauty from this wood.
To minimize the oil problem, then you better avoid the solid color or wash color finish on this wood. The transparent color is a better choice; its light base color gives flexibility to make any color. But since it has high absorption to the stain, then you need to stain the pine wood in the proper way. Avoid too wet application since it will tend to make the dark and blotchy color because of his strong absorption. 

There are many finishing colors that can be generated from this wood, and now in this article we want to share about how to make an antique brown pine finish.

Here is the finishing process, step by step

 antique brown pine finish

• Preparation at the unfinished wood.

Pine is a soft wood that has a high absorption of the stain. A good sanding is needed at the preparation to produce finishing with good results. The wood out of the machinery should be sanded with #120 or #120 grade sandpaper to form an even wood surface. After an even surface is obtained, then you need to continue the sanding to form the smooth surface. A #150-grade sandpaper is recommended to sand the wood in this step. Then, the sanding with #180 grade is needed as the final sanding as the preparation for the finishing process. 

The pine wood has a lot of fibers that tend to stick to the sandpaper and quickly blunt the sandpaper. When your sandpaper is already blunt, then it won't work well and will tend to make the blotchy color at the stain application. You need to replace the sandpaper more often for sanding this wood.

The sanding should be done shortly before the finishing process is started because the wood tends to become rough if it is left for a long time. The wood will absorb the water from its environment and raise its fibers to make a rough surface.

•   Applications stain

Pine wood is wood that has high absorption of the stain that risks making a blotchy color if the stain is layered too wet. A too-wet stain will tend to produce a too-dark color, blotchy, or dirty appearance. You can mix the stain with some sealer to reduce the risk of the blotchy color. The 5% to 10% sealer or top coat in the wood stain will help to reduce the stain penetration into the wood. It is the toner stain that will do as a wood stain but with less absorption. 

Do stain application by medium-wet spray and avoid too-wet spray staining. Brushing or wiping the stain is not recommended for the pine wood since it risks wetting the wood too much and making it blotchy. 

• Sealer application.

The sealer is layered on the stain to protect the stain and to build the film layer. The first sealer is needed to protect the stain as preparation for the glaze application. Apply the sealer by spray-wet coat to the overall surface. Let the sealer dry and sand the sealer to make a smooth surface. Use the #280 or #320 grade stearate sandpaper and sand to the entire surface of the sealer coat. Make sure you have a smooth surface on the overall surface at this stage. The rough surfaces will absorb more glaze and make dark or blotchy colors.

• Glaze application

The glaze is applied to produce depth and rica richlor finfinish. In this panel, we used dark brown color glaze to make the antique dark brown finish. Glaze is applied by brush until it layers on the entire surface evenly. 

Some highlights can be done to the glaze to make it look more finished. Wait until the glaze is thoroughly dry, and then you can continue with the next sealer application. See our previous article: how to apply glaze

• Second sealer

The second sealer is applied on the glaze to protect the color formed by the glaze and stain. Apply the sealer by spray and let it dry. Sand the second sealer to make smooth surface as the first sealer.

• Dry brush glaze

Dry brush the glaze on the sealer to make the finish look more antique. The glaze is dry brushed to burnish and darkened to make edges look dirty and antique.

• Application of top coat

TopThe topat is the last coat to produce a smooth film finish and to form the gloss of the finish. The low sheen or medium gloss sheen top coat is the most used for the antique finish. Apply the top coat by spraying it evenly to the overall surface. 

Wait until the top coacoat isy, and check the result. If you have got the smooth finish film with even gloss, then the finishing process has finished. But if you haven't, then you can resand the top coat layer and respray the top coat.