Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

So, who wants to see pictures of my wood work?

CLICK HERE

I've been slaving away at this for months now and there is just so much of it. All of this has been done with shellac, gallons and gallons of the stuff. Just inhaling all the alcohol fumes has cost me many brain cells I'm sure!

The stair risers, that isn't black paint. That is aniline dye stain and shellac over top. The amber color wood is the result of using a paint colorwash to make the wood a uniform color instead of allowing it to end up blotchy from hard to remove 1840s paint. New wood would look this color if no stain was used. It is very "Beidermeier" which is what I wanted.

The new wood floor is red oak with golden oak Minwax stain and three coats of shellac. It is getting two coats of thinned down polyurethane as I type this to help prevent the shellac from scratching since there is still work to do on the 2nd floor.

The living room, that is shellac over natural wood. No stain is being used. Some white paint spots in dents were dotted with some brown paint to obscure them though!

I have done much wood stripping in the past but have never considered using shellac before. The stuff is W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L (and I'm not saying that because I have inhaled a whole lot of fumes either.) It gives the wood a certain translucent depth that you cannot get with stain and polyuretane. Each coat drys in about an hour and you have to work fast to avoid lap marks but you can get 3 to 5 coats done in a day and sand between coats! I think everyone should use the stuff, even if you put some polyurethane over it.