Master bath

[formariz 11,865]

Had this client for a few years where I exclusively do all the woodwork in their house. This is the recently completed master bath.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by formariz

[oliver2-44 8,883]

Beautiful work.  I count 41 doors and drawer fronts.  

This week I sprayed 41 identical design drawers and doors for my sons kitchen cabinets. 

[SylvanLakeWH 24,243]

Nice work! Wow - Beautiful! 

 

(The toilet paper is probably a non-contract "added cost item" these days!) 

[formariz 11,865]

13 minutes ago, oliver2-44 said:

Beautiful work.  I count 41 doors and drawer fronts.  

This week I sprayed 41 identical design drawers and doors for my sons kitchen cabinets. 

Thank you .Right. Tons of work on those. These are not sprayed. I do a hand rubbed finish. Pretty tedious. Four coats of top coat each sanded with 320 sterated paper, with final coat hand rubbed with very fine  white scotch brite pad. Panels are finished prior to assembling frames around them Final product is silk smooth. Doors have same finish inside. Final test is throwing a rag against one end of longest door. If it slides all the way to the other end then its right.

Just a little playful thing I do to aggravate my wife every time she peaks in and asks "is it done yet".

Edited April 24, 2020 by formariz

[tom2p 2,393]

wow - outstanding 

 

can't get enough of beautiful wood 

 

[oliver2-44 8,883]

@formariz I would like to learn more about your hand rubbed finish.  I've been doing lacquer finish on cabinets and furniture for awhile and personally prefer to show off the wood grain.   My daughter-in-law wanted white cabinets so I sprayed them with the shelac base original Kilz, sanded them with 220, buffed with red scotchbrite, then sprayed them with white oil based enamel with hardener like I use on my tractors.  Not to steal your thread, but heres a little of Tuesdays work painting the back side, and this mornings work spraying the front side. 

 

[roadapples 6,981]

Nice work. I couldn't afford the hardware..

 

[ZXT 2,394]

1 hour ago, formariz said:

Had this client for a few years where I exclusively do all the woodwork in their house. This is the recently completed master bath.

Man, that looks excellent! I have a special respect for carpenters. I certainly couldn't do that!

 

3 minutes ago, oliver2-44 said:

@formariz I would like to learn more about your hand rubbed finish.  I've been doing lacquer finish on cabinets and furniture for awhile and personally prefer to show off the wood grain.   My daughter-in-law wanted white cabinets so I sprayed them with the shelac base original Kilz, sanded them with 220, buffed with red scotchbrite, then sprayed them with white oil based enamel with hardener like I use on my tractors.  Not to steal your thread, but heres a little of Tuesdays work painting the back side, and this mornings work spraying the front side. 

 

Someone is going to have fun putting up the light on the left side of the garage! Stinkin' trim.. 

[formariz 11,865]

 

11 hours ago, oliver2-44 said:

 I would like to learn more about your hand rubbed finish.  I've been doing lacquer finish on cabinets and furniture for awhile and personally prefer to show off the wood grain.

Although I am constantly requested do do a hand rubbed finish specially once a client sees,  and feels it, it really started out of necessity. I don't have the proper facility or space to do any spraying even though it has been done here a few times . I work out of my house in an attached 2 car garage which is my wood shop and it is prohibitive to do that here mostly for health and safety reasons. I do however enjoy the hand rubbed finish and the end result is substantially different. I almost never do or have the need to do painted finishes and if I have to I usually have that done by a friend who owns a body shop.

 

Basic hand rubbing process in a commercial shop, is a sprayed finish then sanded absolutely flat, bringing then the gloss up by hand rubbing with extremely fine steel wool ( now a days a synthetic pad.) The hand rubbed part of it is also basically non-existent since the pad is used on a pneumatic sander until the very last step. Such sander has to be one that only goes on a linear motion and not one that has an orbital motion. The desired end product is a satin finish having a distinct soft mellow glow so smooth that everyone just wants to run their hands on it. It is time consuming and hard in a way specially on large flat panels since it is very hard to maintain a constant uniform sheen. When you hand rub unlike a finish just from spraying there are telltale marks of the direction of the rubbing motion, hence the need for a sander (if used) with a linear motion.Marks may be rather obvious or not depending on the stain color, dark colors making it obvious whereas in light colors they are nearly invisible. That is desired in a way but marks or pattern has to go in the right direction and in a consistent manner. A good example is comparing it to hand painting a paneled cabinet door for example. One has to keep brush marks going with the direction of the "grain" Like vertically on the panel and stiles but horizontal on the rails. Just like if you could see the would grain. If you do not  it just doesn't look right. It sounds like crazy work but once you get experienced in doing it it is second nature. A couple of other important things to consider is that after you sand finish flat, you need to let it cure again because at that point the process of sanding created heat and softened it. Again once it is rubbed the same thing. It has to cure again. you have to be careful handling at that point because although it is dried and can be handled it is soft and you will leave fingerprints embedded on it. If it is a dark finish that will stick out like crazy. Now its the good time to point out another good part about this type of finish. Such a blemish or damage is easily fixed by sanding area and rubbing it again. Done right it will look the same. You cant do the same with a sprayed finish. you will need to spray it again and if you do that in a small area it will never look the same. So this is probably the way you would do it since you have the ability to spray.

 

I however cannot spray so the process I use is somewhat unique and in a way similar to the process of French Polishing although with different materials. I use either some type of a Poly, Varnish and even sometimes Shellac ( correct material for French Polishing) depending where and how the end product is going to be used. I cannot brush it on since it would be nearly impossible to not leave or get rid of brush marks. So what I have to do is sort of wipe it on. There is a wipe on poly available but that stuff is too diluted and over 10 coats at least would be needed. So what I do is dilute or mix my own to my needs in order to pad it on  like in French polishing using the pad (called a rubber) made in a specific way and used also in a specific way. It is critical because of drying time and overlapping. Once that is dried, same process as above. Each coat is sanded absolutely flat with 320 stearated paper and then re coated again the same way  for at least 4 times.Final coat rubbed as described above but by hand since most stuff I do is small and sometimes intricate . On large panels I make large wide rubbing pads so I can cover more area evenly.

Prior to all of the above, after sanding everything progressively starting with 120,150,180 and 220 paper, a wash coat of Shellac is applied prior to staining ( extremely important in Pine, Maple, and Cherry) to control stain penetration and preventing blotching, immediately followed by staining. After stain dries all parts are placed next to each other as the final product and inspected for color or tone variations and adjusted as needed. Depending on type of stain used light sanding may be necessary now for any raised grain. 320 is used. Then a sanding sealer is used followed by the above.

 

Funny I am realizing that this sounds worse than what it is. However someone asked me one time how I knew when it was done. Sometimes it never really is, they just come and take it away.

Edited April 24, 2020 by formariz

[953 nut 52,026]

    Considering the view from that window I'm not too sure I would ever want to leave the bathroom.

[CCW 1,212]

Isn't it nice that some people have plenty of money to pay you for this kind of work.  I am impressed with it's beauty.

[dclarke 4,011]

Outstanding work, Cas!   

[Pullstart 59,917]

Caz, that is an amazing bathroom!  Please don’t ever show this to my wife!  I’m afraid I’d be in the gutter and she’d find a real craftsman like yourself to build her a real nice bathroom!

 

[formariz 11,865]

3 hours ago, 953 nut said:

Considering the view from that window I'm not too sure I would ever want to leave the bathroom.

She spends a lot of time at that window doing her makeup and thinking about the next project.

 

2 hours ago, CCW said:

Isn't it nice that some people have plenty of money to pay you for this kind of work.  I am impressed with it's beauty.

Great down to earth modest people not reflecting their money in their attitudes. He is a very famous surgeon in NYC. There never is an estimate required, she simply states what she wants being very particular about finishes and colors. I usually have to do half dozen finish samples before she approves one.

 

1 hour ago, pullstart said:

Caz, that is an amazing bathroom!  Please don’t ever show this to my wife!  I’m afraid I’d be in the gutter and she’d find a real craftsman like yourself to build her a real nice bathroom!

 

LOL thank you. I get in trouble here too lots of times. She sees the stuff and then gets ideas. Lucky for me most of the stuff I make would not even fit in my house. Ill post HER personal closet next. Definitely don't let your wife see that one.

[squonk 39,037]

Where did that rug come from? High Hefner estate auction? 

Edited April 24, 2020 by squonk

[oliver2-44 8,883]

@formariz Thanks for the detailed description on your hand rubbed finish.  I've saved it to my shop file for referance.

While I'm no where near the craftsman you are, I enjoy the finishing part of projects and continue to tweek what works for me, and am always looking to learn from others.