drcustompainting

This sample section of tongue and groove wood walls was conducted to determine an appropriate tone and color for a large residential remodel project.

The original oak wood was too light for the design team and we were contracted to solve the problem of darkening all the trim, doors, tongue and groove and windows in this 5000 square foot home. A daunting task to say the least. Stripping the wood was not cost effective nor was gel staining this large volume of wood.

Consulting with a master cabinet finisher and numerous experts, we concluded that fogging the wood with shellac based alcohol dyes was the answer. Our samples we sprayed were surprisingly versitile in tones and of higher quality than expected.

Our first issue was determining which solvent to clean the wood effectively and the second issue was the concentration of various solvents in the shellac dye. It took about 3 days of trial and error to come up with the right variables to achieve a new brilliant wood finish. The design team ended up going with the 7th sample (left to right).  We were confinced our finishing system would work on the large scale. Fogging wood, toning wood and glazing cabinets on a small scale was one thing, this was another.

 The outcome after numerous hours of work impressed our team and we were contracted to move forward. This job would take some 170 hours of cleaning the wood along with 3 weeks of a spraying by our master finisher and a helper to complete some 31 windows, 62 doors (jambs and casings) and 5000 + square feet of base and tongue and groove. Once all the kinks were worked out (which there were a handful) we moved along at a normal pace.