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When people ask me what foods I hate, I usually say, “I’ll eat anything, as long as it’s prepared well.”
I didn’t like Brussels sprouts until I had them roasted. I didn’t like oysters until I tried them right from the creek. And I didn’t like green beans until I had fresh ones (ugh, 1970s canned green beans;I’d rather eat bauxite).
The same thing goes for furniture finishes. Most people don’t like grain-painted furniture until they see a well-done example.
Most of furniture-maker Joshua Klein’s business is restoring and repairing antiques in his Maine studio. So he has to do a lot of inpainting, color-matching and the like. All those skills come in handy when he gets to finish a project he built himself.
Today Joshua published photos of his completed tool chest, which he grain-painted and then detailed with colored shellac. I think the result is fantastic – so good that it might convince some of you to give it a try.
You can read about the grain-painting here, here and here on his blog.
More photos of the finished chest are here.
— Christopher Schwarz
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Chris,
The chest certainly looks classy. We both know however, that everyone’s tool chest gets banged around a little bit in the shop. I even noticed on the slide show that came on the DVD with the Anarchist’s Toolchest that your piece even had had a paint chip on the lid. I would like a finish similar to yours since touchup would be easier and less noticeable. I still have the DVD but someone has borrowed the book. What type of primer/finish did you use? The primer was red and the finish was black. Thanks!!