Excerpt from chapter 12 of Contemporary Relationships between Wood & Finish: A step-by-step guidebook and design planner for the layperson and professional by Michael Fallarino
ISBN: 0-9700622-1-4 ©Pan-Global Gumbo, Ltd. All rights reserved.

Making Shaker Cabinets Old
 
The most interesting finish I ever produced was at the house of another financial magnate, where an addition to an old structure included a large wall of Shaker built-in cabinets. I was challenged to produce a finish that would simulate the effects of two centuries of use.

Part of my concept was to make the cabinets look like they had been repainted a number of times. The sample accepted from the range produced represented a very labor-intensive process, and my price reflected that.

The first step involved priming the poplar cabinets with B-I-N® tinted to a traditional barn red color.

I next applied a customized adaptation of a Pratt & Lambert gold latex paint. In this step I used a brushing technique that left primer revealed in selected areas where the finish might have worn through naturally–rims of knobs, spots behind wooden turns, and door stiles and rails and their corresponding jambs. I also guessed at how a utilitarian, low-priority painting task might have been handled long ago–I was intentionally sloppy.

The third coat produced the chief effect. It involved the creative use of a traditional powdered polishing compound known as rottenstone. While now largely in disuse, rottenstone and pumice stone have a long history as polishing agents. They are mixed with water to form a polishing slurry that is traditionally used to rub out the final coat of a finish, bringing the surface to an extremely smooth luster. But I learned from an antique dealer how to use the powder more creatively.

For this step I brushed out an extremely heavy coat of the same paint used in the previous coat, covering up just a tad more of the primer. As I applied it, I threw, blew and brushed from my hand, and tossed lots of rottenstone into it. By then brushing more wet paint directly onto the surface, a thickly textured finish was immediately built up. I placed the thickest build in corners where dust might have collected and been painted in. To help insure a stable bond, Emulsa-Bond®was mixed into this coat.

At this point the overall effect simulated cabinets that had been repainted many times without preparation between coats. Next, the edges of the gold paint were gently sanded wherever they revealed primer. This removed evidence of brush strokes, and gave a naturally smooth, worn appearance and texture to these places.

The function of the fourth step was to build an easy-to-work-with, bondable base for the glaze and oil topcoats that would follow. Bio-Shield penetrating oil, Penetrol®, and Japan drier were mixed and flooded on, then buffed off. The oils penetrated into the latex paint, deepening and smoothing the finish.

The fifth step was to apply a brown glaze to make the finish look very old. I selected raw sienna and burnt umber tints and used them in unequal proportions in Pratt & Lambert’s forgiving faux finishing Lyt-All® Alkyd Glazing Liquid. This was brushed on with a small china bristle brush, allowed to set a little, then partly removed with thinner-dampened cheesecloth. The heaviest concentrations were left on the roughest textures. At this point the look had been achieved, but not the whole finish–glazing requires a topcoat for protection.

So the next coat was low-luster oil polyurethane. The entire finish was now sealed under a protective film, and the poly was buffed out with 320-grit sandpaper.

A heavy coat of brown paste wax was applied as the seventh and final coat. The wax completed the kinesthetic aspect of the finish, giving the surface a well-worn, slippery feel. It also created protection from dust and moisture, and augmented what was now a deep glow.

See photos of faux Shaker cabinets