Getting the cottage ready for rental
My focus for this weekend is to continue getting the cottage ready for rental. A good portion of my time is just general cleaning to get the rooms and exterior of the place spruced up for summer. The rest of the work is finishing the interior of the completed bathroom. Since last week, the contractor installed the fixtures and turned the water back on for the bathroom so now it’s just finishing up the woodwork and eventually hanging the decorations and accessories like towel bars.
The first area that bothers me is the salvaged door that I refinished for the bathroom. I stripped the door, but one side of the door was drastically different than the other. One side seemed to have more shellac because it was a smoother finish while the other side was more mottled. I tried to smooth out the patchiness using dyes, but it had limited success. I then applied a coat of linseed oil. In both cases, it seemed like the wood (which I think is an oak veneer) never absorbed the dye or linseed oil. Because of this, I decided to try using a glaze which sits on top of the wood unlike stains or dyes that penetrate the wood.
Dyed door with mottled look
I apply a burnt sienna glaze from General Finishes. Overall I find the glaze hard to apply since like the other finishes, it slides off the surface with minimal wiping. The instructions say to apply and then wipe off excess, and once I start wiping, most of the glaze comes off. Eventually I get a light touch and try to leave a thin layer of glaze which does reduce the mottled look a bit.
Door after applying glaze
The glaze is supposed to dry for a few hours before a top coat, so I then hit the interior of the bathroom by waxing all of the shiplap with linseed oil wax. I’m hoping that the combination of linseed oil paint + wax will be enough to repel any water from the shower or sink splashes.
Toilet installed
I also apply glaze to the other side of the door and to the window frame which I felt was mottled from the gel stain. Both of these have similar issues to the other side of the door where it’s tricky to figure out how much to wipe away as the glaze sets. After a few hours I apply shellac as the top coat for the glaze. I’m not sure if shellac is correct because the instructions just say to apply a “top coat” within 6 hours.
As I apply the shellac I notice the glaze liquifying and swirling around. I’m assuming the solvent in the glaze is possibly alchohol since that’s what the shellac is using. I try to work quickly to get a few coats of shellac down without smearing too much of the glaze.
Glazed window molding and door with a shellac top coat.
