Oh wow, I bet you could maybe see that the job ahead of me was going to be fun fun fun! All I can say is, what a wonderful way to forget that I’m in prison, as it were,and that we live in such maniacal times that it’s even illegal to venture to The Range.
So, we’re with Rustoleum’s Weathered Wood now, and so far so good. I bought two tins, the ash grey and the smoke white to work in layers. You need to stir this product really well, because it separates while standing on shelves at the retailers. I bought two colours because driftwood, or aged wood per se, is always more than just one colour. I also mixed in at the start, a small amount of Farrow & Ball’s ‘Pointing’ colour. I adore Farrow and Ball, but to my mind, Darling Wilko cooks up fantastic cheaper alternatives.
Once the Rustoleum Weathered Wood was mixed to the consistency of single cream, I went to work...
There was a nail-biting hour or so, after it was all prepped, when I felt completely at a loss as to how to proceed e.g. to work from dark to light, or light to dark? This dilemma threw into question just how much sanding I had ahead of me, thankfully there was none. The colour that was left, which was eventually very red, I decided to retain and use as the dark undertone, for when I sand and wire brush paint back later, that red under layer will appear as small dark areas, a bit like Sgraffito.
There are very good videos out there showing how to approach both options, but there are more videos of people working from dark to light, so I went with that interpretation.
First, I stripped both panels, being the modesty board and the desk top, with a wire brush, then I stripped them with chemical varnish stripper, from Darling Wilko. Then, after two hours, I scrapped off the gloup with a plastic scraper. Then I washed off all the residue with soda and white vinegar.....that’s when ‘light bulb in head‘ moment happened and I said to myself “right, now I get it!’.
Put simply, to my way of understanding this faux patina thing, it’s only when water swells the wood that the nature of the wood changes, be it rain, fresh, or salt water, it’s the water part that really kicks things off.
So after the wood had been scrubbed, it became a velvety cold surface that opened up to the various layers of paint. I suppose what I’m trying to say is, that’s when it became super-porous and absorbent. So the colour you are applying will actually go into the wood and change it, as well as rest on its surface.
And off I went....
The last photo is my favourite so far, but things have moved on a lot since then, more for another post.
I am so enjoying slapping on this fake patina, it’s really, really enjoyable! I have always wanted to recreate driftwood, so for me, to do this to that desk is so special.
Whenever I see a piece of driftwood I’m always completely transported back in time, following its battered path over many years to become such a remarkable object. To the concept of interiors, the past is fundamental. From the beginning of time, in our dwellings we have always given respect to those that went before, and what I particularly love about driftwood is it’s wood with the appearance of a bone or fossil....and you KNOW how I adore my fossils and bones.
To think, we can now make our own driftwood from convenient tins! Much better than organising dawn raids of coastal regions.
The desk is going to take looooooonger than I thought, but the drawers are now a source of creative zeal, because being small, and something you interact with, the possibilities are.....endless....
Stay sane ppl, there’s not much more of this imprisonment to go...
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