Period Styled Sideboard Finished

Re: comments

Alan Young

I learned a lot building this piece. One "skill" I was required to refine was the ability to "hear" what the client really wanted. We exchanged a variety of e-mails in the process of building this sideboard. We did not argue or have conflict but there was a point where I found that my interpretation of the original design did not match hers in some of the details- particularly the trim inside the panels and around the drawers. In previous pieces in this genre-I have employed mica powders in gilding-I was thinking that mica powder gilding would be my go to technique for this piece. Then I remembered Clint S. suggesting gold leaf. I gave that some thought for this project but decided the required learning curve was more than I wanted to engage for this piece. So I used an amber shellac for the trim pieces.

The client wasn't wild about the result:

We had some e-mails and phone calls (She lives 70 miles away) to attempt to find agreement on what she was actually looking for. Sparing this post too many details it was finally solved by her saying the trim needed to mimic the hardware in color. My wife saved the day by ordering these Arteza Metallic Acrylic colors.

Eileen mixed a couple of these colors and arrived a a very good match-She also had the steady hand to apply the finish.

Re: comments

Alan Young

I appreciate the "Appreciation". This piece photographs so differently depending on the lighting. Whether photos were taken in my shop,my living room, outside the house or at the client's home it seems to have highlights that vary from setting to setting.

When we began negotiations I mailed her several finish samples-Mahogany, Sapele and Cherry all with a Spray lacquer finish. She chose the Mahogany finish which was much closer to the shading in my drawing:

Then about a month into construction she said she wanted the color to "match" a table she had. She brought a leaf from the table to me and I made a few samples to get a match to the leaf. She was not desperate to have the sideboard match exactly - My look is a tad "darker" than the table but is accurate in tone. This Mahogany was a bit frustrating to work with. The solid pieces took the original Red Mahogany Stain quite differently despite my efforts to make application in a consistent manner. This required the "toning" of Shellac with some Trans Tint dyes to get the solid lumber to match. Mixing sessions were interesting...