Like many of us, I am not the best woodworker. However, I still like the idea of making my own furniture. I just do have the finances to outfit a home workshop like the ones you see on television. I can, however, apply stains and finishes. Staining and Finishing only requires some basic tools and experience. Plus, if I totally mess up a piece of furniture when finishing it, all I have to do is to remove the finish and start all over again.

Some of the basic tools you’ll need are: sandpaper in various grits, some good paintbrushes, rags, and a ton of patience. If you have an electric sander, that speeds up the sanding process but isn’t required. I use a small orbital sander that both vibrates and swirls for a smooth finish.

In my town, there are a couple of stores that sell furniture for just these types of projects. They are usually called “unfinished furniture” or “raw furniture” stores. They typically have a good selection of furniture in pine, oak, and other species of wood. You’ll usually find a good selection of furniture ranging from simple bookcases, armories, coffee tables, all the way up to complete dining room sets.

With a raw or unfinished piece of furniture, one of the toughest decisions is how to finish it. Again, you will have several choices. You could simply paint it a color to match your d?cor. Or, you could stain and finish it with a clear top-coat. And with stains, you have a myriad of choices. You could stain it a natural-looking wood color, or you could stain it a more vibrant color like red or purple! The main difference between staining and painting is that paint is opaque and cover the wood surface. Stains are transparent and let the beauty of the natural grain show through.

Your top-coat, or clear-coat on top of the stain can be either flat, semi-gloss, or shiny. The new water-based polyurethane finishes are easy to apply, quick to dry, and a snap to clean-up. And there aren’t a lot of nasty fumes with them.

Popular options right now are hand-painted finishes. You can paint your unfinished furniture to look like a charming folk piece or something from a French country cottage. And if you are up to the challenge, you can apply a faux finish with paint to your unfinished furniture to make it look like anything from stone to steel!

The most important thing to remember when you are finishing your own furniture, is to have fun, take your time, and don’t worry if it doesn’t turn out exactly as planned. Sometimes the best looking pieces are not the ones you started out trying to create!

By: Dean Novosat

About the Author:
Dean Novosat is an avid do-it-yourselfer and remodeler. He has been refinishing and building furniture for twenty years. He has several websites including Raw Unfinished Furniture and Hand Made Furnishings .

One of the easiest faux painting finishes is faux brickwork. It can add interest to a dull flat wall or drab concrete surface, either in the home or in the garden or patio area. The great thing about it is that reusable stencils, easily available from many retailers, make the job really quick and easy, even for beginners.

Brick Finishes

An uninteresting floor or wall can become an eye-catching feature with a brick finish makeover. Indoors, the unpainted brick look is trendy and modern with the warm colors of brick complementing other decorating styles. Outdoor spaces can also be enhanced. Brickwork (especially aged brickwork) has a soft, warm appearance whereas plain, untextured concrete floors can be stark and ugly.

Using brick stencils is useful if you want to extend existing brickwork without the effort, expense and mess of actual construction. (And you may not be able to find bricks that match.) Brick stenciling is also an alternative to restoring existing brickwork. Brickwork that has been damaged or previously painted is notoriously difficult to restore but can be rejuvenated with clever use of paint.

The Pros and Cons of Stencils

Especially if you’re new to faux painting, brick stencils have many pluses and few minuses. In some cases (for example, if you need to match existing brickwork) you may have to mark out your design manually, or create your own stencil to match what you already have. If you can buy a stencil to suit your purpose you will save a lot of time. The only real downside of stencils is that their fixed size can create problems with corners and edges (especially curved edges, for example around a circular or arched window).

Which Design?

Brick stencils come in a staggering array of different designs, with different brick sizes and paving patterns. Choose your design carefully to fit in with the room or surface you plan to transform.

Make sure that the scale is in proportion. Consider the space available. You may not want large bricks in a small room or small blocks in a bigger space. The size of the brick is one factor influencing the degree of texture that results. Some manufacturers offer customizing and re-sizing of stencils.

Also consider how the pattern will match your architecture, d?cor or space. Modern home with clean lines may invite a plainer, more geometric pattern. That could be simple rows, but a herringbone design can also look neat. Circular or swirling patterns can soften a space with hard lines, or complement older architecture, rustic d?cor or traditional gardens.

Have Some Fun with It

Brickwork doesn’t have to be reds and browns. Other colors can simulate brickwork that has been painted over. You can also choose between a clean, new brick appearance or create a soft, aged look by using paint techniques to create a distressed effect. Stencils are the core of the process but you still have other fun options to choose from to create your ideal look.

By: Debra T Conrad

About the Author:
Find more brick stencil ideas from That Painter Lady. Then claim your free “Insider’s Guide to Faux Painting” and avoid all the common mistakes, get success tips, find the right products for the job and more.