I love kits, but sometimes a partially built or fully built unfinished furniture piece fits the bill. First, there are some rather fancy unfinished pieces on the market that have no kit equivalent. Second, sometimes the built piece saves headaches as well as time.
Today, I finished a store counter from miniatures.com. These are great pieces at a great price, but all unfinished furniture pieces have their issues. Sometimes, the grain of a piece is too large for scale. In other instances, glue has seeped out during assembly. When you build furniture from kits, mishaps with glue are always a problem so it’s best to stain before assembly, masking off the areas to be glued.
My counter had large obvious stripes in the grain but only minor glue mishaps. I sanded the pieces smooth and removed the glue as best as possible before staining the piece with Minwax English Chestnut (two coats). I wait until the stain is completely dry before doing the touch-ups described below.
Here you can see the large grain on the top of the counter. I took this photo after starting the touch-up process, but you can see the thin, light lines across.
To fix these issues, I used a tiny brush to apply thin strokes of Traditional Burnt Umber by Americana. I applied only a small section at a time.
Working quickly so the paint did not dry, I used a bristle brush to pull the paint in the direction of the grain. If you get things too dark, you can wipe away the paint with a damp cloth but then you’ll have to wait for the area to dry before trying again.
This method takes some practice, but it covers bare spots and large grain while keeping in line with the wood grain. The top now has a more even and subtle grain finish.
Here is the front with the light grain portions painted over. The stain leaves a sheen while the paint is matte, so the fixes look obvious at this stage.
I rubbed the surfaces with a torn bit of paper bag to soften the painted spots without lifting the color the way sandpaper would.
I applied Delta Ceramcoat Satin Varnish.
Now the paint and stain look like one grain.
