Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Trying to make a 30 year old pecan dresser look more 'antigue'.

Hi, I have a 30 year old pecan dresser which my parents gave me and I have successfully stripped it to it's original pecan color. However, it is in excellent condition and looks almost new! It is a peice which is modern looking with no curves or 'personality'. It just has 4 standard long drawers and a cabinet which opens up to an inside drawer. What procedure could I use to make it appear to be more of an antique to match the theme of my bedroom? Thanks in advance for your help!

Trish:

Making a piece with contemporary lines look like an antique is quite a task!

There are two ways to approach this. You can pick and choose or use a combination of the two:

1- You can physicaly distress the piece. By this I mean wearing down the edgs with sand paper, a rasp or file, etc. Actually using a small nail to imitate worm holes - this sort of thing.

2- You can apply 'distress' marks in ths finishing process itself - flecks of paint to imitate old dirt/worm holes, etc. Perhaps a glaze to darken certain areas.

There are lots of possibilities, and this forum doesn't have room for any but a broad outline of the potential solutions.

For a complete study on finishing, get a copy og Bob Flexner's book "Understanding Wood FInishing. It's a complete treatise on all sorts of finishing techniques, and covers the area of 'faux' finishes quite well.

Thanks George, those ideas certainly sound like they would make a big difference in this 'contempary old' dresser. What type of stain do you recommend I use for pecan? Should I do the whole piece once and then go over random areas twice to darken them?

Thanks, Trish

Trish:

Any good over the countr stain should work. Minwax, Zar, and Carver-Tripp are 3 I have used and like.

You can do as you suggested, go over the entire piece and then go back to darken some areas, however many retail (as opposed to commercial) stains don't have enough pigment in them to add much additional color on a second application.

For darkening specific areas, you may want to consider artist oil colors. They're pure pigment, and thinned slightly with paint thinner, will go a long way.

Before you darken anything, however, take a good look at older pieces of furniture to see where the 'dark' areas come naturally. On rasied panel doors, the edge of the raised panel is usually lighter than the center; same is true of drawer fronts.

Forumlate a plan for what you're going to do before you start - color, darkened areas, physical distressing (if any), etc.

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George T.