The Art of FInishing

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​The finish for my linen press went about as slow as I expected it would, but I never approach finishing with the attitude of how fast can I do this then go full throttle. For me this has always been the most rewarding part of any project, and I enjoy taking my time. Sometimes it's days or like this press weeks, but I thoroughly love every minute of it. My choice of finish for this piece was a hand rubbed amber shellac, followed up with a coat of wax.  

​I started by taking the linen press completely apart working on it one piece at a time, trying to apply the finish in an order that made the most sense to me. Starting with the upper and lower cases I applied my first coat of shellac by hand using a cotton applicator pad allowing for the finish to dry then after a light sanding I would apply my next coat of finish. After five coats of finish I had the look I was after so I did a final light wet sanding and applied a coat of wax buffing it by hand to where the finish is now. With the upper and lower cases done I moved on to the panels that make up the back of the upper case and the shelves, eventually moving on to the drawers and then the doors for the upper case finishing all of these parts in the same way.    

At this point I think I was almost three weeks into the finish, but the finish was finally done.  Now it was just a matter of reassembling the press and few minor adjustments in the catch for the doors and I did applied some paraffin wax to the drawer runners, other then that everything went back together pretty smoothly. From start to finish it took me three weeks to do the finish for this linen press, and completely worth every second of it. Now on to the next piece of this set, the bed frame another simple design that I will let the material bring to life.