Monday 14 February 2011

Faux Rosewood painted finish

The chair frame is now "Rosewooded". This technique was very popular in Victorian times, take a simple beech or birch frame and then make it look super special by giving it a painted finish to make it look like very expensive rosewood or burr walnut. We see a lot of Deco period chairs with a faux walnut burr finish that is so convincing that the owners think that it really is walnut, they're very disappointed when we tell them that it's a painted effect. In the case of the walnut finish, the wood is usually gesso plastered first to give a silky finish, then underpainted before the top fake "walnutting" is applied. Whereas the rosewood effect is usually applied directly onto the prepared wood.

This is what the frame looked like after it was cleaned but before the faux effect was started.


There were lots of areas where the finish was worn through and missing.

It took a little while, but this is what it looks like now.



It's not very often you see a whole chair done in this way.

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