Hey, everyone! I made this bathroom vanity, my first big build, but now I'm
stuck on the finishing. I can't for the life of me figure out how I'd like to
finish it! I want my bathroom vanity to NOT look like dated 1980's oak, but
many of the finishing options would make it look that way. I want to keep it
as natural as possible. Something light. Perhaps cerise did oak that uses
white wax to highlight and lighten the grain. But I can't decide. Any
suggestions?? P.S. The pulls will be black.
https://www.homeownershub.com/img/8l

On 2/3/2017 6:44 AM, Thrift Diving wrote:
Hey, everyone! I made this bathroom vanity, my first big build, but now I'm
stuck on the finishing. I can't for the life of me figure out how I'd
like to
finish it! I want my bathroom vanity to NOT look like dated 1980's oak, but
many of the finishing options would make it look that way. I want to
keep it
as natural as possible. Something light. Perhaps cerise did oak that uses
white wax to highlight and lighten the grain. But I can't decide. Any
suggestions?? P.S. The pulls will be black.
https://www.homeownershub.com/img/8l




If you built it out of oak, it's going to look like oak, pick you
decade. Most modern cabinets these days are being built with a wood
with out an open grain. They are then stained or painted.

Short of filling the grain and painting I am not sure how you are going
to avoid the oak look.

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in
:

On 2/3/2017 6:44 AM, Thrift Diving wrote:
Hey, everyone! I made this bathroom vanity, my first big build, but
now I'm stuck on the finishing. I can't for the life of me figure out
how I'd like to
finish it! I want my bathroom vanity to NOT look like dated 1980's
oak, but many of the finishing options would make it look that way. I
want to keep it
as natural as possible. Something light. Perhaps cerise did oak that
uses white wax to highlight and lighten the grain. But I can't
decide. Any suggestions?? P.S. The pulls will be black.
https://www.homeownershub.com/img/8l




If you built it out of oak, it's going to look like oak, pick you
decade. Most modern cabinets these days are being built with a wood
with out an open grain. They are then stained or painted.

Short of filling the grain and painting I am not sure how you are
going to avoid the oak look.

I think the key word there was "dated". The best way to keep it from
being dated is to make it an introvert, tell it that talking to strangers
is bad, and give it an irrational fear of beards. Fellows, please lay
off the beards. The evil man isn't the one with the beard, but the guy
with the carefully groomed appearance so that he projects just what he
wants you to see.

ANYWAY......

Have you considered just going with sanding and a clear or slightly
tinted finish? Some wood looks fantastic sanded up to 400 or even 1000
grit then finished simply with a coat of wax or shellac. You're refining
the wood so it looks its best (oh, I didn't expect a tie-in here), which
is kinda like taking a shower and trimming your beard before a date.
Coating it with "Golden Oak" stain and finish is that carefully groomed
appearance I mentioned.

Puckdropper
--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

I suppose you have some leftover scrap, from the build. Use those to test some applications.

One option: Apply one or two thinned coats of shellac, to fill the grain/pores, then apply something like (semi-gloss?) Varathane floor finish.

Sonny

Thrift Diving wrote:
Hey, everyone! I made this bathroom vanity, my first big build, but now I'm
stuck on the finishing. I can't for the life of me figure out how I'd like to
finish it! I want my bathroom vanity to NOT look like dated 1980's oak, but
many of the finishing options would make it look that way. I want to keep it
as natural as possible. Something light. Perhaps cerise did oak that uses
white wax to highlight and lighten the grain. But I can't decide. Any
suggestions?? P.S. The pulls will be black.
https://www.homeownershub.com/img/8l


Didn't they have something a couple of decades earlier called "Limed
Oak"? It looked OK at the time.

--
GW Ross

On 2/3/17 6:44 AM, Thrift Diving wrote:
Hey, everyone! I made this bathroom vanity, my first big build, but
now I'm stuck on the finishing. I can't for the life of me figure out
how I'd like to finish it! I want my bathroom vanity to NOT look like
dated 1980's oak, but many of the finishing options would make it
look that way. I want to keep it as natural as possible. Something
light. Perhaps cerise did oak that uses white wax to highlight and
lighten the grain. But I can't decide. Any suggestions?? P.S. The
pulls will be black. https://www.homeownershub.com/img/8l


Everything Leon said... plus....
If you have any scrap oak left do some experimentation with finishes
including dyes and paints, maybe milk paints.

The only way to make that not look like 80s golden oak is to do some
sort of distressed painted thing with it.

If you don't want to paint it, look at doing an extreme contrast in the
grain with dyes. I did something with oak once where I used a black dye
in the grain. You apply a ton of dye and really push it into the grain,
then you *flat* sand it off the top, leaving the dye in the grain. Then
finish the top. The dye in the grain can be any color.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

On Fri, 03 Feb 2017 12:44:02 GMT, Thrift Diving
m wrote:

Hey, everyone! I made this bathroom vanity, my first big build, but now I'm
stuck on the finishing. I can't for the life of me figure out how I'd like to
finish it! I want my bathroom vanity to NOT look like dated 1980's oak, but
many of the finishing options would make it look that way. I want to keep it
as natural as possible. Something light. Perhaps cerise did oak that uses
white wax to highlight and lighten the grain. But I can't decide. Any
suggestions?? P.S. The pulls will be black.
https://www.homeownershub.com/img/8l

White paint. ;-)

On 2/3/17 10:32 AM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 2/3/17 6:44 AM, Thrift Diving wrote:
Hey, everyone! I made this bathroom vanity, my first big build, but
now I'm stuck on the finishing. I can't for the life of me figure out
how I'd like to finish it! I want my bathroom vanity to NOT look like
dated 1980's oak, but many of the finishing options would make it
look that way. I want to keep it as natural as possible. Something
light. Perhaps cerise did oak that uses white wax to highlight and
lighten the grain. But I can't decide. Any suggestions?? P.S. The
pulls will be black. https://www.homeownershub.com/img/8l


Everything Leon said... plus....
If you have any scrap oak left do some experimentation with finishes
including dyes and paints, maybe milk paints.

The only way to make that not look like 80s golden oak is to do some
sort of distressed painted thing with it.

If you don't want to paint it, look at doing an extreme contrast in the
grain with dyes. I did something with oak once where I used a black dye
in the grain. You apply a ton of dye and really push it into the grain,
then you *flat* sand it off the top, leaving the dye in the grain. Then
finish the top. The dye in the grain can be any color.



I found a picture of an oak drum I made using the "dye push" technique I
wrote about.
https://goo.gl/photos/cJvKsfnezSKx5Evh6


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply