Friday Project Series: Salvaging Wooden Furniture with Faux Boise

I was out to lunch the other day with friends when someone mentioned an old painted door they wanted to refurbish. I told her I would love to help and I thought I would share the technique on Color Buzz.

“Faux Boise” translates from French as “Fake Wood.” It’s a great decorative painting finish that we use a great deal at our Beehive Studio, especially when people don’t want to go through the trouble of stripping down a painted wood surface.

There are many levels of this technique from the very basic to the very complex. Artists have been able to recreate the look through layering various paints resulting in the familiar oak look to more exotic patterns like Zebra wood. I want to share with you all one basic approach...

To begin, I took an old armoire that had been painted white. The first thing you need to do is start with a strong base color. A deep yellow like Cowslip 6 from the Laura Ashley collection is a great all around base for this technique.

 

Once you’ve painted your base color, tape off the intersecting sections so that you can keep the paint moving in the direction of the “grain.”

 

Next, take a deep, brown paint and add a bit of water. For this demonstration, I used Boston Legacy. Brush the brown paint on the wood, keeping the strokes in the same direction as the grain. Once this coat is applied, go over the surface with a dry brush, again following in the direction of the grain. This will create stripes.

Once this section is dry, re-tape to close off the sections that still have to be painted. Repeat the previous steps in these areas. Now, you’ll have one last step...when the magic happens!

I chose to use an acrylic poly-stain because it delivers that last layer of transparent color while also giving a protective layer and sheen. Apply this layer with a brush, painting in the direction of the grain. This coat adds depth and richness creating the look of real wood.  

I hope you all get inspired and go out and reclaim some of the beauty of wood.

Comments

[Maria Killam]

My dad did this technique on a 'hope chest' he made for me when I was 12 years old. The wood he used was stained so instead he painted it like this. Then when I moved out and decided that my decor should be black and white I painted over it in a shiny, oil black. A few years later I stripped the whole thing (it took an entire weekend) and it looked so great afterwards I just left it unfinished.

[Mabel]

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[ny custom furniture]

The ultimate look is very much to my liking...a mix of old and contemporary decor.

[marquee flooring]

i would love to read more from you on this

Regards
Lion

[ann]

Stay tuned... we'll be doing more faux boise in the future. If you have a specific project in mind, let us know...

[art painting]

Very great stuff! Look forward to reading more from your blog.