Okay, so it’s been quite a while since posting – our trip to Kenya and the subsequent business of life when we got back has kept me away. It’s just a quick post today as I still have to go through our photos from the trip, and have yet to make much worth posting.
A while back, we obtained a table and chairs for our living/dining area. We loved that they were old and worn, but the colours didn’t quite match up, and the scratches on the chairs were quite severe. I didn’t want them to match exactly, but wanted the colours to be more similar.
It’s hard to tell in this photo, but the chairs were more yellow, and the table more red/orange
Staining seemed to be the obvious choice, but I didn’t exactly want to go through the hassle of all the sanding and refinishing. I did that before with a set of thonet style chairs that had been painted white (a travesty) and could still remember how long it took me to strip them all down to the point that I could stain them again. And then, of course, I forgot to use a wood conditioner and the stain ended up being all blotchy. 🙁 It was quite upsetting after all that time and effort.
Not only did I want to have to go through all that effort again, but I didn’t want to lose the character that these pieces had by sanding them down and making them look all new again. Enter the magic that is danish oil.
I was first introduced to this while reading a blog post by Mandi, of Vintage Revivals, who talked about it’s transformative abilities. It’s a product that doesn’t require any sanding to be applied, and actually works quite well with existing finishes! Essentially, it colours in all the nicks and scratches of the piece, while also adding back some lustre to the tired old finish. It comes in a lot of colours, so you can match it to the same tone of the piece you already have!
Chair on the left has been treated, while the one on the right hasn’t.
As I was wanting to tone two pieces the same, I didn’t bother with matching the colour. While that was good in theory, I kind of wish I had chosen a lighter tone (I used Jacobean Dark Oak). The areas where the finish had been rubbed away on the chairs darkened a bit more than everywhere else. I guess the raw wood just soaked up the stain far better than the areas that still had varnish. So if you want to use this stuff, try and find a Danish oil the same colour (or close to) as the original piece.
Oooooh… sexy, shiny furniture…
All in all though, it evened out the two pieces quite well, and made them look all healthy again. Can furniture look healthy? I dunno… but they seem to have more life in them after the Danish oil. If that’s not healthy, then what is 😉
Very interesting article!