The Framers Forum

I needed to order a few lengths of something cheap so that one length of moulding would be part of a large enough bundle to withstand delivery to me. As a result, I ordered a few lengths of Simons PIN-27 and when they arrived, I thought I would do a few handfinished display chevrons. So here they are:
Recently, I've been making a lot more use of pine mouldings. The one (PIN-27) is a nicely priced pine moulding, which looks suitably attractive with an interesting finish on it. Some lengths include a few knots, which I just cut around. All base colours are textured and all finishes are lightly distressed.

For some unknown reason the bottom two chevrons have not photographed as accurately as the others and in particular the bottom one seems to have almost no colour at all, but that's not how it really looks.

The finishes on these chevrons from top to bottom are:

Off white wash over raw sienna.

Off white wash over a mid brown.

Off white wash over a muted green.

Off white wash over a mid blue.

Off white wash over oxide red.

I used to use similar finishes on PIN-26, but now seems like a good time to change some of my range and give some things a new look. Does anyone else do interesting things with low cost bare wood mouldings?

Hi Mark. They look good. What do you use as a 'wash' please?

Jan

If you exploit the grain in the wood as part of the look then it cuts out a lot of the donkey work. It's the ones were you have to make a smooth surface that take time. The actual top coats take minutes.

A nice finish on pine is the 'shabby chic' look. Slap on various coats of paint and rub back when dry. Quick buff with a duster - bingo. I did one recently using a bunch of matchpots I had in the cupboard.

On these particular chevrons, the wash was made using one of the Amsterdam range of acrylic paints. They just happen to be a good quality paint at the right price, but I use all sort of different paints according to what I happen to be doing.

In this case the wash, is mixed to be a little thicker than you would probably expect and is brushed on quite sparingly at first and then stippled a little to give a slightly uneven and random effect.

All makes of acrylic paints have their own qualities and characteristics, so you may need to experiment a little to get the right strength of wash and application technique to suit the particular paint.

The chevrons were sealed with a light coat of a fluid matt acrylic medium to enhance surface durability.

No attempt whatsoever was made to create a really smooth surface on the pine, although the finished result feels really smooth. It's a low cost moulding and to maintain the price advantage the applied finish needs to be quick, easy and to employ the minimum number of coats, ideally just one coat per colour employed.

The base colour was stippled on using a paint with a fairly thick consistency and a lightly loaded brush, so as to create a finely stippled surface and to fully conceal the grain of the pine with just a single application of paint. This means the base colour needs to be thick enough and opaque enough to cover fully in one coat.

I distress the finish with a mixture of solvents instead of using steel wool, so that I can work really fast. To get the maximum benefits from handfinishing the work rate should be quite fast. Those who have seen me working will be able to confirm what am I talking about and it's all about technique, not taking your time!

They look great! Good work, well done .