Decorating with Faux Finishing

Creating the look of real wood is EASY!

Stairs before

Primed with pre-tinted primer and yellow streaks added.

Create wood graining with an artist brush or graining tool.

Creating knot holes is easy!

Blend with a dry paint brush

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Completed staircase

As clients traversed these stairs, I was always just a bit embarrassed as to the "trashy" appearance of this "entrance" in to an otherwise beautiful and very "classy" recording studio.

With friend husband away on a business trip to Mexico, I decided to take on the project with great enthusiasm.

I had to use a commercial stripper to get the carpet glue off the steps but that went relatively easily and I was done within an hour.

I then painted the risers and adjacent side rails with "cream" colored high gloss paint.

Saving a step, I had my primer tinted to a golden "pumpkin" color, using it as my base coat, then added streaks of a lighter yellow, blending the two together with a dry paint brush. This mimics the lights and darks found in natural wood.

Though there are wood graining tools on the market that make the job of creating authentic graining very easy, I chose to do my own with an artists brush by creating lines of deep brown paint (mixed with a little glaze) over each step.

By creating my own graining, I could more easily control the final look of each step, making each different from the other. Remember to create lines that are not straight, but rather bumpy or slightly curved. As an example, look at any piece of real wood to see what I mean. Rarely is the wood graining actually "straight".

Knot holes are fun to do and so easy. Simply pick a place on your step that you wish the knot hole to be, then create a series of arches lines in a near circular pattern. Smaller and more tightly grouped in the center, spaced farther apart and wider as you near the outside edge.

Now, blend all of your lines with a dry paint brush.

Three coats of varnish top off the project and make the stairs durable enough for lots of traffic!

Now I am very proud to have clients walk down in to the recording studio with it's new oak staircase, lovingly created by my own hands.

Designer's tip:

Oak is not the only type of wood that you choose to mimic. There are so many types and though with each, the graining may be a little different and certainly the background colors you would use would be different, but the technique and application will be exactly the same.

Choose rich, deeply colored mahogany if you like or the pale beauty of light maple. The choice is yours! Simply do a search on the internet to find a photo of your favorite wood and then match it's background color and mimic it's obvious graining and using this technique, you too can re-do your staircase, your old book case or any number of projects that you wish to give that natural wood look to.

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