I’m on the fence if I want to do any more work on the ceiling since it’s pretty smooth, but I could try another watered down coat to try and fill in any imperfections. While I consider that idea, I focus on moving to staining the woodwork before I start on plastering the walls. Finishing the stain before the plaster lets me have a little more wiggle room when applying the stain. If I get some stain on the wall, no worries because it will be plastered over. The one area that needs some attention before staining is a large gash in the door frame. A chunk of wood was removed for a lock and because I’m no longer running a rooming house, I fill the missing chunk with epoxy.

I use Abatron’s wood epoxy to fill the hole. First with the liquid base and then mixing up the 2 different putties. I press the putty into the hole and then use some rubber sandpaper holders of various sizes to press the putty into a shape close to the profile of the molding.

Molding the repair to match the contours of the molding.

After the epoxy dries, I use sandpaper to carve out and smooth the repair so it matches the molding shape.

Sanding down the repair to match the molding.

As the epoxy cures, I use some linseed oil paint to touch up any white spots on the molding that I was unable to remove due to stripping and sanding. I put a combo of burnt umber and white paint on my palette and then mix those to to various shades to cover up any blotches on the wood.

Once I make my way through the white blotches, I move next to staining using the homemade turpentine and linseed oil paint stain. I let the stain sit on the wood for about 15 minutes and then wipe it off using paper towels.

While the stain sets, I then plaster one of the walls that doesn’t have any woodwork on it. This is a 2nd coat of Master of Plaster and since I will put wallpaper up on the walls, I won’t be going with a 3rd fine coat. Since it’s the last coat, I do a light burnishing to smooth things out, but not get that glassy finish of the fine coat on the ceiling.