Experiments in framing and woodgraining

For some reason I decided I wanted to try building a frame out of wood this past fall. Not just any frame, but a cool one. It may have started because I needed frames for some non-standard sized engravings, but the project quickly evolved into a beast of its own.

The woodgraining idea came early on, and it's something which remains absolutely fascinating to me. For those who don't know, woodgraining is a way of painting to create the illusion of a fancy wooden veneer. Woodgraining techniques were traditionally used on cheaper woods, to make them look more luxurious; the style came in and out of fashion at various points during the 18th and 19th centuries in interiors and furniture. By the 20th century, woodgraining began appearing on metal surfaces as well, and became particularly popular on cars... if anyone has ever seen those older cars with the faux wood veneer on the side, that is an example of woodgraining!

I first encountered woodgraining as a child on the bannisters, doors and baseboards in my grandma's house, which was built around the 1880's. Not knowing what it was, I just thought someone had used some really thin paint, and left it at that. Then last year I visited the Regency Town House in Brighton while travelling in the UK; they were in the process of restoration and presented on the different traditional techniques they were using to restore the house. One of these techniques was woodgraining. Suddenly, I recognised that strange paint-job in my Grandma's house (but fancier)! They had several amazing recreated panels, applying the technique in all kinds of fanciful ways (have you ever seen a fish made out of wood knots? Thanks to their team it exists!).  The Regency Town House not only educated me on what I had seen growing up, but it also accomplished what I previously would have imagined to be impossible- it made me decidedly enthusiastic for it.

It was thus that I came to the decision that woodgraining was something which must be attempted.*

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I decided to build my woodgrained frame around a simple mini 5x5" mirror from a craft store. For expediency's sake, I used an already corner-shaped length of carved wooden moulding for the frame, and sanded it a bit to make it look more frame-like. I then cut the length into mitered pieces and glued/nailed them into place. I used some really tiny nails which, interestingly enough, have square bodies, and they managed to hold it without splitting the wood at all. The next step was to paint!

Now for painting: woodgraining is traditionally done using multiple layers of paint. First a primer is laid down on the wood, then a light coloured base paint layer, and one or more darker layers done in a thinly applied paint to create the grain patterns in the wood. This is finally topped with a glaze to seal them all in. Due to time/supply/budget constraints I decided to use a series of basic craft store acrylics to try to create a similar effect. Here are my versions of the layers:

 

The first step was to coat the wood in a layer of primer. I opted for gesso, because it's what I already had at home, and because it tends to be a generally solid craft primer.

The next step was the bottom coat. This is the base colour you want for your wood, and it should ideally be a fair bit lighter than the colour you ultimately want the paint to be. It seems that people who actually know what they're doing when they do this often try to choose a colour and grain pattern that can realistically evoke real types of wood. I did not use any such scientific approach, although there are red woods (and red-stained woods) out there to be sure. I was inspired by this antique mirror which uses a red ground with dark brown grain over top. The paint I used for both layers was a simple craft store acrylic.

 

Now here's the fun/difficult/nerve-wracking part. In my attempts, this seemed to require just the right balance of paint on the brush- enough that the brush could move smoothly but little enough that the paint would streak, and not cover the base coat entirely. There are lots of different tools and techniques I've read about for making various grains, but for the sake of ease (and not having to buy specialist tools) I decided to go with a simple thick paintbrush. I got this sort of quartersawn grain effect by using a long brush stroke down the entire side, alternating pressure in the stroke to create stripes of heavier and lighter paint application. On the other two sides I did after this I got a bit overconfident and the pattern turned into more of a burl-y look, but I suppose it appears more or less purposeful from a glance. After this, I sealed it with a glaze.

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To set the mirror into it, I got a piece of wood and added sideways nails to the back to keep the mirror/wood combination in place (also inspired by the mirror in the earlier link).
And here it is, done!

 

Overall a lot of work and a lot of different layers and waiting for things to dry, but I think it looks decent for a first attempt!

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