This is the look I’d like to achieve.
http://www.ethanallen.com/product?productId=1128&categoryId=8352
I was thinking of the following: Seal with zinsser devaxed shellac, Glaze with a yellowish brown gel stain like GF Golden pine, and then spray with a yellowish toner.
Note this is being done in doors, I will not be able to use a true lacquer. Instead, for the top coat, i’ll be using a water based lacquer, likely the target EmTech 6000 mixed with a yellow collorant to make the toner.
Any help would be appreciated. if someone has a better sched, would love to hear it.
thanks.
Replies
If that is the look you want, and if you'll be using cherry, then be sure to use some sort of lacquer or varnish that is just about UV-proof.
Because that is (pretty close to) what cherry looks like if all you do is put a clear coat on it. But cherry is photo-reactive, and WILL change colors with exposure to light.
I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone,
And I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone;
I can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone,
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here. (Phil Ochs)
I doubt that the piece is made of cherry. I think it may be maple, which would make your job a little easier. You will need a seal coat to reduce blotching, and then a dye such as honey maple amber, followed by a stain or gel stain, if necessary. I would top coat with an oil based varnish because of color, but the toned water based product works also.
You will have to experiment to get a good recipe. Our opinions can only take you so far.
Good luck, Tom.
What species of wood is the Ethan Allen item? And, what species of wood are you using?
Howie, I'm pretty sure that is cherry. Looked like it in the show room. And if you zoom in on it, you can see the figure looks more like cherry than maple, at least in my opinion.thanks for the input people
Edited 11/28/2009 3:53 pm ET by dperfe
Well Dperfe, if the company had used cherry they would have stated it in the description. Cherry is a sell point for most people. The wood is most likely Alder which has the same grain patern but is cheaper and mush less reactive to UV. I'd have to agree with Mike, you will have a really hard time getting cherry to match the picture you have shown us it just has to much natural red in it. And in time it will go darker still.
John Dream Weaver Painting
The store said it is sold American Cherry. I think one's computer display likely alters the color etc. I recall that the in store product was noticeably darker.
As they say in the Wizard of Oz, "No way, no how!"
IMHO, the only way to get cherry to look like that is to paint it light brown. Which is what Ethan Alan probably did, but using maple or some other light hardwood.
FWIW, cherry will get WAY darker than that just sitting around. The pieces below are finished with clear oil and shellac. No stain at all.
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Had I stained it at all, it would be darker still.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Everything fits, until you put glue on it.
Mike,
Beautiful work. The cherry pieces I have done are always with a clear finish. Never stained. I have always thought, Why mess up what is there naturally?
Alan - planesaw
Edited 11/29/2009 8:11 pm ET by Planesaw
Thanks. I'm with you -- no improving on cherry's natural look.Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Mike -
Looks great. How old is the sideboard? Curious how long it took to get this color.
Edited 11/30/2009 2:54 am ET by Spotcheck
Oiled cherry will darken up pretty quickly. Here's a crummy pic of some cherry cabinetry/trim I did a year or so ago, Watco & shellac. The pic was taken when it had "aged" about 2 months. Also look at the floor lamp at the far left. Also oiled cherry, but about 10 yrs old.
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Hardly any difference.Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Mike - thanks
Beautiful A+C room. Whatcha got from the opposite view?
Ya know, I'm surprised that don't seem to have a pic of the opposite end of the room as complete -- just one "in progress". It's before the woodwork was oiled and shellaced, chair rail and ceiling molding were installed, and the door (NOT cherry, $$$) was stained to match. Also, here's the side of the room to the right of the first pic, left of the one below -- the fireplace & mantle, before & after:
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View ImageMike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Hooooookay -
Now I'm hoping for a few closeups of the mantle - including the inlay.
Man - you do some good work. I'm impressed and jealous.
That's as close as I've got for the mantle, except for an out-of-focus background shot of the entertainment center partially visible in the first post.
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You can see it full-size (in more detail) here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/climbhipa/3855853754/sizes/o/in/set-72157622030266288/
Relative to the original topic of this thread, this pic was taken pretty much right after finishing the cherry -- note the floor has not yet been finished.
The inlay (in both the base molding all around the room and the mantle) is walnut. The mantle leg pattern was routed -- 1/4" wide IIRC -- and inlaid with walnut strips and, for the circles, *very* thin walnut strips (5 strips to fill the 1/4", IIRC) curved around the circles, then scraped/sanded flush, like doing a geetar soundhole. If I had it to do over, after seeing some G&G furniture up close & personal, I woulda left it a bit proud and rounded it over by hand sanding the edges. In that case, I would have turned the circles rather than inlaying strips.
The crown visible in the first pic in the thread is also interesting -- looks like normal crown in the pic, but is actually stepped flat strips, again cherry 1X, with walnut at the edges, pegged in the corners.
And just for kicks, here's an end shot of one of the floor joists I took out at the start of that job -- termite city. Funny thing was, from the outside, you couldn't tell there was a problem. They just ate the filling and left the crust! Sure made for demo easy, tho'! ;-)
View ImageMike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Stunning work!...Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off , painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it’s worth – lyrics from the song wear sunscreen
Thanks, but after recently seeing the real thing from the G&G workshops recently, I'm not worthy to even play in their sandbox. ;-) Seeing the originals -- now THAT's stunning!Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
OK, here are the other two sides of the room (the opposite end finished, and the wall opposite the fireplace), as good a closeup as I could get of the mantle inlay w/o additional lighting, and a shot of the ceiling molding.
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Here's a better look at the difference between oiled cherry at 10 yrs (floor lamp), vs relatively new stuff :
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Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Mike - it is clear you are a teriffic craftsman - no pun intended - but let me also say you are one HECKUVA designer. The crown molding details in that shot of the corner - wow.
BTW - these photos are now saved in one of my woodworking subdirectories. This house doesn't need anything, but I'd love to swipe some of your ideas/concepts some day.
Thanks for the clear answer on the color of cherry, and thanks for the tour of the room. Any more rooms we should know about?
Thanks again
Kent
Atlanta
Thanks, but I can't take all the credit. My Lovely Assistant is a key element in every project we do. This particular house has been a long-term education for her. When she started out, her idea of building furniture was assembling a set of shelves from Ikea. Now, she's an integral part of almost everything I do. She's fully qualified on all the tools/equipment. Witness the recent wood-fired oven project, where she's about to chuck a brick at me for a comment I made ;-)
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And working a post & beam joint:
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And running the RAS (which some consider way to scarry to have in the shop -- imagine!)
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She's also the resident finishing technician, including faux finishing the existing pine windows to look just like cherry, oak, you name it. She's gotten pretty good at stained glass as well.
As for other rooms, each one is different, but this is the only one with cherry. The rest are various treatments of oak, except the kitchen, which is maple & cherry. All are what, for lack of a better description, are my own take on A&C -- kinda Post A&C.
Glad you enjoyed the pics.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Well - I'd still be interested in some photos if you felt like sharing.
The real congratulations are for the "looker" who can lay a brick arch and drive a bow saw down a timber. With the trowel in her right hand, I'm guessing she is not a lefty, so she probably couldn't hit you with the brick - but I wouldn't bet against her.
Those are as impressive as the other shots. My very best regards to her as well.
LOL, the bad news is that she IS a lefty, but can use the right pretty much just as well.
Duck! ;-)
I don't have many of the other rooms on this PC -- mostly construction progress pics of our recent addition. And I've pretty much hijacked this thread now, so I'm reluctant to dig any deeper. ;-)Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
good thing there is the Gallery?
Or, PM?
Is that a brick pizza oven I see her working on?...Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off , painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it’s worth – lyrics from the song wear sunscreen
You betcha. We cook in it pretty much every weekend, but only rarely pizza. Mostly bread, general dinner & desert stuff. We did the Bird in it last week -- most excellent! I just polished off the last of it tonight.Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Did you do it from plans? I am a pizza fanatic. I'd love to make an oven. ...Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off , painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it’s worth – lyrics from the song wear sunscreen
Kinda/sorta. Alan Scott -- The Bread Builders (Amazon). But if you decide to do it, give me a shout first. I learned a lot from this one that I would change.Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
I was able to get the finish you show by using Minwax colonial maple stain on cherry and it came out a nice brown just like the Ethan Allen look. I was matching a client's night stand from Ethan Allen.
That looks great. What was your process. Did you just apply it to the bare wood, did you use a sealer etc?
Basically I sanded to 180 grit and applied the stain and 24 hours later I applied 5 coats of Minwax wipe on poly, sanding very lightly between coats. Took a couple of days to get all 5 coats.
My question is why you would want to do that to a great timber like cherry when soft maple, alder or even poplar could be made to look just like that. Just my opinion of course.
If you use cherry no matter what you do it will darken. Here's a picture of a cherry hutch I did and I used waterlox sealer covered by the satin finish. It's a fantastic finish, but I have no illusions that it will darken as it's in an area of the house with lots of windows. But then, I love the natural beauty of cherry and it looks better every day.
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...Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off , painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it’s worth – lyrics from the song wear sunscreen
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