Wainscotting - one for Jacob, perhaps?

[Steve Maskery]

Whoa, Andy!
I think you have entirely the wrong idea of the sort of place in which I live!
Wainscotting like that would double the value of my house...

 

[AndyT]

Whoa, Andy!
I think you have entirely the wrong idea of the sort of place in which I live!
Wainscotting like that would double the value of my house...

Oh, this is just for the house. A bit of MDF and some Gripfil should see you right then.

I thought it was your workshop that was going to have the panelling, oil lamps, leather chairs and old buffers nattering on and on... :wink:

 

[Steve Maskery]

Oh, this is just for the house. A bit of MDF and some Gripfil should see you right then.

I thought it was your workshop that was going to have the panelling, oil lamps, leather chairs and old buffers nattering on and on... :wink:

=D> =D> =D>

 

[ED65]

I'd like to do it all in oak, but I think that would be prohibitive, oak-flavoured poplar is more to my budget, I fear.

Since I was just looking at some references to this yesterday, any interest in trying out graining Steve?

Oak seems one of the easier species to mimic convincingly and the results can look incredibly real (even in the flesh apparently). Since you'd have greater familiarity with oak than the average faux painter I'd say you'd have a good head start on achieving a proper result.

Other than giving you the look you originally wished for another advantage is you wouldn't even have to fork out for poplar, MDF would make a great base for it if it would be durable enough for you.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Isn't that excellent?! Wonderful work.

 

[xy mosian]

I remember Dad doing some scumbling, I think there was a thick yellowish paste involved. It came from a Valspar tin if my memory is clear.
As for the height. Is there an obviously old, not modernised, house in the area to get a look at.
xy

 

[MIGNAL]

Posh folk got the real wood, poor folk got the graining effect. I've seen hundreds of examples of graining in Victorian houses, although there's not much left of it now, most of it stripped or overpainted. Not so long ago I had a fleeting glance at one of those houses that had obviously been untouched, all the grained woodwork was still intact including the internal doors. Rare sight these days.

 

[bugbear]

Posh folk got the real wood, poor folk got the graining effect. I've seen hundreds of examples of graining in Victorian houses, although there's not much left of it now, most of it stripped or overpainted. Not so long ago I had a fleeting glance at one of those houses that had obviously been untouched, all the grained woodwork was still intact including the internal doors. Rare sight these days.

Try looking round an old baptist chapel or two.

BugBear

 

[Giff]

Have you thought about scumbling ? I have seen it used on film sets and it is very convincing. They use serrated combs and rubber "knot" stamps. Maybe not for the purists but very "period" Geoff

 

[Jacob]

Posh folk got the real wood, poor folk got the graining effect. I've seen hundreds of examples of graining in Victorian houses, although there's not much left of it now, most of it stripped or overpainted. Not so long ago I had a fleeting glance at one of those houses that had obviously been untouched, all the grained woodwork was still intact including the internal doors. Rare sight these days.

We had loads of woodgrain effect in our place. At first glance I thought it must be chestnut (in that it looked something between oak and elm). Saved a lot of it - 1/2' thick very wide softwood panels (yellow pine?) and looking for a use.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Now you tell me! I've just been and spent, er, lots, at Nixon Knowles this afternoon.
Ah well.

 

[Harbo]

My father did a lot of scumbling when covering old panel doors with hardboard was the fashion. Used combs and birds feathers to get the grain effect.

Rod

 

[MIGNAL]

Posh folk got the real wood, poor folk got the graining effect. I've seen hundreds of examples of graining in Victorian houses, although there's not much left of it now, most of it stripped or overpainted. Not so long ago I had a fleeting glance at one of those houses that had obviously been untouched, all the grained woodwork was still intact including the internal doors. Rare sight these days.

We had loads of woodgrain effect in our place. At first glance I thought it must be chestnut (in that it looked something between oak and elm). Saved a lot of it - 1/2' thick very wide softwood panels (yellow pine?) and looking for a use.

Most of what I saw was a mid brown but with a yellow/tan colour showing through. I always thought that it was trying to imitate Oak. Always on some sort of Pine. Of course I wasn't seeing the colour as it was originally done, a hundred years probably altered it a touch.
Must have been an important trade, just going by the amount of woodwork that was done with the effect. I also came across internal doors that had a rather dark brown finish, kind of a cross between paint and varnish. Not grained as such. Maybe that was cheaper than the grained effect.
This was around '75 through to '80. It wasn't all that unusual to come across the odd house that had hardly been touched in terms of doors and windows. This was also the time when folk were ripping out Victorian pine doors to replace them with the flush Mahogany eggbox doors. Not me, I was sparkys mate.

 

[Giff]

A lot of canal boats are painted with grain effect (on steel!). We have friends that have just had theirs re-painted and it looks really good and near impossible to distinguish from "real".

 

[skipdiver]

My eldest brother (sadly no longer with us) served his painting and decorating apprenticeship with a local brewery and did all manner of scumbling and marbling work with various lotions and potions, feathers and weird brushes. His shed was an Aladdins cave of scumble pots and tins and smelt wonderful. When he started, his firm still had hand carts that they would push from pub to pub with all their gear.

The effects he could achieve were astonishing and he could make any surface look like any other wood or marble finish you required. Most of today's decorators don't know much beyond a roller and emulsion.