Furniture Re-Finishing
Isle of Wight based French Polishing, Paint Spraying and Furniture re-finishing service offering a re-finishing service for furniture that may be tired, colour faded, worn, surface damaged, lacking harmony or simply just needs refreshing again. If you are considering a new look for a suite of furniture (old or new) I am happy to discuss what I can offer to help you achieve this as effectively and economically as possible.
I undertake the re-finishing of all types of furniture from antique to modern using both traditional (French Polish) and modern hard-wearing spray finishes in both paint & clear lacquer. If you require a paint finish your colour of any brand (Farrow & Ball, Little Greene, Dulux, etc) is mixed into industry standard furniture paint lacquer which is smooth/easy to clean and very long lasting (unlike a lot of paints). This offers a choice of sheen levels from matt through to gloss for around the same cost as store bought diy paint but with the all benefits and refined look of genuine paint lacquer.
Lightening Furniture
It’s possible to lighten furniture using various approaches depending on the type of wood and the existing colour of your furniture. This can involve (strong) bleaching or pigment staining or various other methods. This can transform dark and heavy looking furniture to assume a more modern and contemporary look to pieces otherwise deemed too dark for current tastes and room interiors and trends etc. Lightening wood can also help deal with unwanted yellow/orange (light/uv exposure/colour fading) or undesirable colour tones. Lightening furniture does involve extra cost and labor as it’s a thorough process which usually involves some repetition of process and materials so it’s worth bearing in mind.
Colour Change Job Example: Modern Dark Mahogany tripod table:
(top): Original Dark Mahogany finish, (middle): Post stripping/start of bleach process, (bottom): Result after 2+ bleachings then clear finished.
If bleaching is not possible or practical then use of a light pigment stain under clear lacquer (eg: white/grey) can often shift the appearance of furniture into a colour zone much lighter, giving furniture a more contemporary look and tone.
Bleaching or using pigment stains is of course an extra process in a finishing schedule and does add extra cost to the job but compared to replacing a suite of furniture for a ‘lighter look’ the cost of these processes is going to be substantially cheaper than the latter.
Orange Pine Anyone?
You may not mind the colour of time and UV manfiested in an orange hue on pine (and other wood) furniture, that’s understandable, but if leaves you wishing you could wave a wand over your Pine furniture and it take on a new colour then there is a way to make this happen.
Pine Wood Samples Stained & Natural:
White Wash stain- The Pine Timber (no stain)
- Light Oak stain
- Medium Grey/Brown stain
This stain sample set (on the right) is the underneath of a customers Pine Table to show what could be done color wise. You can see no 2 shows the untouched strip of pine with the other samples showing a few sample colors. This was to match the table to some existing ‘antique’ Pine furniture.
Micro pigment water stains with soft colour tones have pushed down the orange hue that wasn’t wanted . No1 shows a White Wash stain (used on own or as a base) with 2 other stains picked from a larger range of colours.
Full disclosure; these samples aren’t water stains on bare wood but instead are stains sitting on a very thin layer of finish (spray lacquer) before going on to have a water pigment stain put on top. If these stains were applied to the bare wood they would usually not look anywhere near as even (or subtle) in my opinion.
Finished table (from top of page) with paint lacquered chairs in situ.
I’m Sean Jackson and I’ve been involved in wood finishing in one capacity or another for nearly 40 yrs. I’m a sole trader who undertakes the finishing and re-finishing of furniture in both paint and clear lacquer finishes.
I can usually provide estimates for jobs from pictures with descriptions as well as visit your home or premises to view potential jobs.