What do I do now my builder has finished?

[Nigel Watts]

I think I now know what convicts feel when they are released from prison: a mixture of elation, followed by confusion when faced with prospect of having to make decisions about what to do with the new-found freedom.

After issuing a number of dire threats to my builder he finally turned up on two days last weeks to finish off a number of long outstanding items. 15 months to decorate the outside of the house is finally at an end. Well not quite. The external electrics, which were damaged by the work, have still to be fixed. My builder has agreed to pay for most of this through his chosen electrician, who is proving almost as elusive as the Loch Ness monster.

After discovering that the kids left some horrible scratches on a recently inherited Kashmiri walnut table of my wife's I might try my hand at some furniture restoration. This has just turned up in the post but I am not entirely sure how to use it:

It's for melting shellac into scratches and then levelling them without destroying the surrounding finish.

I also need to develop ideas for the colour scheme in our main bedroom. I have in mind a late Victorian aesthetic movement decor with a darkish blue green wallpaper, which I have yet to find. This is quite close but not dark enough or blue enough:

Any other ideas will be gratefully received.

Happy Christmas

 

[Penners]

Nigel - great to hear how your project has come on by leaps and bounds. You must be delighted to see the builder's work completed.

I've never used one of those hot iron furniture repair tools for shellac, but I have for repair wax; sticks of hard coloured wax for melting into scratches, dings, etc. But judging from the following Youtube clip that I've found, the technique is pretty similar. The only thing I'm not familiar with is the "burn-in balm", so I'm not sure how essential this is. I gather it stops the shellac from sticking where you don't want it to (so don't get any into the unfilled scratch).

If your furniture is fine and French-polished, obviously you shouldn't use the aerosol lacquer to finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZSWOtrX0f4

You can buy burn-in balm here:

http://www.behlen.co.uk/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=B700-1203&Category_Code=

The one thing that the repairer in the video clip fails to emphasise, in my view, is that you must always ensure that your blade bridges the scratch, to ensure that you get the filler absolutely flush with the surface.

The other critical thing is the amount that you burnish the repair afterwards. I'm not sure about shellac, but with wax it's not difficult to burnish it to a very high sheen, and if the sheen is higher than that of the surrounding wood, this can make the repair unsatisfactorily noticeable.

I do urge you to practice on a fairly insignificant area before you tackle very obvious scratches. There's quite a technique to using a hot iron.

Good luck - do post back on how you get on.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Are the scratches really deep???

 

[plasticpigeon]

I like that paper, and I really like the decor you have used in your house so far. I am confident of my judgement when it comes to form, but less so with colour. I have a reprint of a mid victorian book by Christopher Dresser which is very interesting, and another book called Cassell's House decoration which I don't like too much, as all the ideas and examples seem to be either Edwardian neo classical, or rather wild schemes with very large patterns which were obviously the authors preference, but I imagine not necessarily following conventions of the time. Can you recommend any other period decorating books, particularly from or concentrating on the late Victorian period please??

 

[agbagb]

Agbagb's misus
Not sure if this is of any use as I haven't looked at it in a while but it's been useful for windows, porches and decorating ideas ETC. ISBN -13: 978-0-7153-1319-0

OR ISB -10: 0-7153-1319-3

We can't work out which is the relevant ISBN even though I have the book in my hand as I speak :roll:

 

[JoceAndChris]

You must be the only person, ever, to have such a major project finished for Christmas Nigel - well done! I know it took an absolute age but when you consider the complexity of the scheme I don 't think it's bad, and not as lengthy as ours, with large disfiguring holes in the render for 4 years. Can we have some updated pics? Were you pleased with the quality of the work in the end? Dare we ask a rough figure? Would love to know.

I think you should get 2 little kittens now you have a bit of time. Everyone should! Glitterglam Bengals would look nice.

Lovely idea for the bedroom - will keep my eyes peeled. I'm convinced the Americans have much greater choice when it comes to these sorts of things. Do Watts of Westminster not have anything?

 

[PointySticks]

Plasticpidgeon,

Unless your house is very grand, you might want to have a look at the Geffrye Museum website (or, if you live close enough, pay a visit) for decorating ideas. What was considered fashionable design of a given period tended to trickle down to the masses from what might have been used in grand houses, much like modern design magazines show you how to "get the look" of a grand interior, but on the cheap. In a lot of modern books about period decorating the focus is on design in grand houses, as there is more source material there for historians to look at. So what you see in the decorating books, wouldn't necessarily have been used in more modest homes.

In contrast, the focus at the Geffrye Museum is more on middle class houses and, having visited recently, I can tell you I was quite surprised by the relatively restrained decor in some of the recreated living rooms. This is from the website:

By the 1870s and 1880s the middle classes were being encouraged to furnish their parlours in the new 'artistic' style. In stark contrast to the mainstream taste for strong colours and lavish decoration which drew on a wide range of historic styles (mainly on eighteenth-century revivals), the artistic interior was treated with muted colours and was influenced by a mixture of Japanese, Islamic and early English styles, as seen in this painting.

You'll find he website here: http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks for the tip about the museum, I have looked at the website and it definitely looks worth visiting. I shall go next time I am in London.

I also have the Linda Osband book, but I am keen to get books of the period rather than modern source books as the modern ones often show a contemporary take on period buildings. The best books with period photos and paintings I have found are "The Victorian and Edwardian Home from old photographs", "Turn of the century style" and "Victorians at home" which is particularly interesting as it is all photos, drawings and paintings of interiors from the 19th/early 20th century. However I still haven't found any definitive source for how working class bedrooms were decorated.

Re Nigel's table, would you be happy to show a photo Nigel. I am interested in the process of repair and how it turns out. I know a little about wood finishing as I have restored a few old guitars and had to fill in colour and french polish one that had been sprayed with car spray paint, (usually cellulose lacquer is used on guitars but on one particular one I chose to french polish as I wanted to repair the finish rather than refinish). I followed a technique that my dad who is a violin maker uses uses. The process I used was to seal the wood with white polish, then match the colour using dye stains dissolved in french or button polish which is brushed in, and then french polish over the top. I found the technique very difficult as it was hard not to get the colour streaky. If the scratches are very deep I guess burn in is better, but if shallow I'd be scared of damaging the surrounding finish with the iron.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Nice guitars pp!

Strong upper middle and middle middle and lower middle classes in Britain in 19th C with every degree of finance in between. For example, I might describe a well brought up girl with a grocery business as middle middle, and there might well be aspirations to wallpapers and fancy curtainry and a fairly nice house. I know the Finchley house of my old friend's great uncle, who was a travelling shoe leather salesman, was really quite nice. There were wallpapers and borders and lots of small rooms with a lot going on, pretty good plumbing and lighting too.

But for the really poorest it's useful to turn to Engels and "The Condition of the Working Classes"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0199555885/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1356671198&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

For them the concept of home ownership and decorating would be a distant dream, many existed in the most squalid of conditions and I'd imagine looked at crumbling ancient limewash in dingy damp tenements.


All just amateur musings; it's interesting to speculate.

 

[robgil]

I have been teaching myself to French Polish this past few weeks, I have yet to get around to repair work but the polishing process was fascinating.
I stripped and polished these speaker cabinets over the holidays.

The kitchen table is next. :lol:

 

[DJH]

I like the look of that robgil. How did you teach yourself to do it in just a couple of weeks? I rather fancy a go at that myself.

Doug

 

[robgil]

I dont claim to be a pro after only a few weeks but once you get the technique it becomes self explanatory, my biggest issue was getting the right amount of polish in the rubber, I was quite surprised to learn just how dry the rubber has to be to put down an even coat of shellac, also preparation is very important.
I also learned the hard way that the next coat of shellac will not hide any defects in the previous coat, it will often highlight them, so I spent a lot of time sanding out defects.
I think to do it properly and be efficient at it would take a bit longer than a few weeks but I am quite happy with the finish and happy in the knowledge that I didnt cut any corners, I have heard of people using T Cut to get a final polish with shellac.
Another thing I was soon to realise is that shellac takes a few days to go off and cure properly so sanding is best done at the very least 24 hours after the last coat has been applied.
There is lots of advice and walk throughs on the net but there is also a lot of bad advise out there so its best to do a bit of research before jumping in.