OMNI REFINISHING

 One of the last projects we did was a dark colored desk and end table. The designer wanted to go with an off white color with some antiquing. The desk already had a nice lacquer finish but was to dark for the room. First off we cleaned the desk really good and then sprayed it in a shellac primer. Then we lightly sanded the piece concentrating on edges and raised areas. This allows the original dark color to show through the primer in key areas. Some of the sanded areas didn't look good so we had to touch up those area with primer and sand again. After we got the sanding looking the way we wanted it we sprayed the piece in a non yellowing lacquer clear. The next step is a bit tricky you need a glaze with utc colors and 4" brushes to brush out the glaze. The glaze was mixed with burnt umber and raw umber half and half to give the piece that shaded antique look. Again we put another clear coat on the piece to lock in the glaze.It was looking good at this point but for this project we wanted just a little more so we added subdued spots. This part can also be a bit tricky to make it not look like a cheetah. We took naphtha with burnt/raw umber and mixed them together in a bucket. Then we took a stir stick with a small brush and flicked little spots on the entire piece. You have to be careful not to mix to much color into the naphtha or else the spots will be to pronounced. The naphtha will need to be stirred often to keep the color from settling to the bottom of the bucket. I keep a clean white rag with me to dap up spots that look to pronounced. After we got the subdued spots looking the way we wanted it was time to put on the final clear coats. All in all we were pretty happy with the way the pieces turned out and so was the client. If you have a target color remember to go a bit lighter with the glaze coat because the spots will add color also.