Stained Wood

The woodwork has been scrubbed down as much as possible and sanded down so the next step is to start touching up the white paint remnants using artists paints. There are a few areas that need another sanding due to the wood grain raising from all of the stripping and washing. I use contoured rubber pieces to get the sandpaper into the molding’s profiles. I then mix up some colors and add some Japan Dryer to the palette before touching up all of the white paint blotches left on the wood.

Artists paints to touch up woodwork.

Touching up the wood.

More paint touch-ups.

While the paint touch-ups dry, I do a few more work on the outlets to tighten them up and also add some extenders where needed. I make sure all are sitting nicely when covers are applied over the outlets. Then back to the woodwork, I start applying the custom oil stain to the wood. I use mostly a foam brush followed by a small artist brush to get into any cracks/crevices.

Staining the wood.

Window stained.

Baseboard and window stained.

I let the stain sit for a little bit and then wipe the excess off using a rag. I don’t tape anything off because eventually the plaster will be covered with wallpaper and the floor will be refinished. I get a first coat on and will consider a second coat next weekend or go for a shellac sealer.

Stained wood and wiped down.

Stained wood.

With the door, I work on the other side of the door and do the French polishing technique that worked nicely last weekend. The second side of the door goes OK until I hit an area that has a drip. I break the rule of shellac that is - don’t overwork the shellac. I end up rubbing off too much of the shellac trying to get rid of the drip so I then need to apply some new dyed shellac to repair that area. After that dries, I re-sand the area with mineral spirits as a lubricant which then requires another application of shellac using the French polish approach. The repair is pretty good, but I think it will need 1 more application of shellac before I attempt to apply paste wax to the entire door.

The dark area in the top left panel I ended up rubbing out too much.

After re-applying dyed shellac, I then re-sanded. It will require another application of French polish shellac to smooth out the sanded shellac.