The cerusing bug strikes again, bookshelf edition.

In a desultory fashion I keep an eye on craigslist for free oak furniture, because I really like free stuff (obvi) and I liked the results from my first attempt at cerusing. You never know when you will hit the jackpot, like seeing a posting for a beautiful oak bookshelf in good condition in a nearby neighborhood!  The giver was accommodating about scheduling a pickup and had exactly the type of home you hope your free furniture comes from, a clean one.

I used a short term car rental service to transport the bookshelf, super easy. The bookshelf was heavy enough to make me think it was solid wood.  I bartered with a friend to have him remove the existing finish, which turned out to just be some stain. There was no polyurethane or finishing oil to strip off. While sanding down the bookshelf he discovered that the "solid oak" of the sides and front casing was really a high quality thick oak veneer over particleboard.  Although cerusing is not recommend for veneers I decided to carry on with the original plan.  Here is the bookshelf after being sanded down to remove the stain.

Next step was to dye the wood, using the blue aniline dye I purchased.  The initial dye layer looked green, probably because of the yellowness of the oak. (Next time I will try to bleach the oak before dying, if that's even possible). After 3 rounds of dying and drying the color looked blue, and I was satisfied. Although in retrospect it might have been better to do another round, because after applying the shellac the color looked green again.

(top half) Dyed blue veneer with shellac layer on top, (bottom half) dyed blue layer.

I like greens, blues, and teal, so while this was not the bright cobalt blue I was going for, it didn't stop the project!  To improve the strength of the finish I applied two coats of shellac to the horizontal surfaces and outside faces of the bookshelf.  This worked out to about 1.5 cans of shellac.

After the shellac dried it was time to apply the liming wax, and to learn a lesson about not following directions.

I did a test run of the wax on one of the removable shelves, by wiping on the wax, working it into the grain and then immediately wiping of the excess with #000 steel wool. This was easy enough and the results looked normal. Then I made the mistake of reading the directions on the tin, which said to let the wax dry for AN HOUR before wiping or sanding off the excess. So that's what I did. Maybe that works if you want an overall whitewashed finish and just want to smooth the surface with a bit of light sanding, but for cerusing over dyed wood this was a huge mistake.  The wax got really hard and was difficult to remove with #000 steel wool through hand sanding.

With a lot of elbow grease I eventually sanded, or buffed, all the surfaces down so that the grain was filled in but without a white haze over the rest of the wood. A day later I applied clear furniture wax to help seal and protect the surface even further.  The furniture wax was easy to wipe on and buff to a shine, and it smelled good too.  The instructions on that product say to let the waxed surface 'cure' for 30 days before any heavy use.  That sounds like a long time, but given how long it takes me to reorganize anything or move furniture around in my apartment I think it will be fine.  In the meantime I've been admiring the naked bookshelf in it's new colorful state. 

This is what a naked shelfie looks like.

If you're interested in cerusing something, go for it! It is a bit more involved than a one-coat paint job, but the intricacy and richness of the final finish are worth it.

Happy freestyling, keep an eye on your local craigslist free section!

Let loose the ceruse(ing)!!!

Ok, first of all, what the heck is 'cerusing' or cerused' and how do those terms relate to furniture? Let's skim through some language history at warp speed.

The Merriam-Webster definition:
Ceruse: white lead (Pb) as pigment

The Free Dictionary online definition:
tr.v. ce·rused, ce·rus·ing, ce·rus·es

To treat (wood or a wooden object) with a white pigment to accentuate the grain.

Another source notes that this furniture finish is called "liming" and that the "limed oak" is a term known in Britain.

What YOU need to know is that cerusing is freaking awesome, and I hope it helps people find new life for solid oak furniture that might otherwise seem too dark or even 'orangey' for modern tastes.

This is the first example I saw in the blogosphere that got me thinking about this technique, thank you Little Green Notebook for your design inspiration and useful tutorial!

Isn't this awesome?

More applause to the blogger at Addicted 2 Decorating, her dining table makeover and tutorial was really helpful.  It makes me want to try cerusing a large surface just to show off more of the amazing grain.

I read more about cerusing, but had nothing to ceruse, until that happy day came when I found an oak table that i knew immediately would make a good test subject.  

The start of it all

With my now acquired wisdom I would say it is easier to dye pieces of furniture before they are assembled, but that's a small point.

Raw material, saved from the trash

I stripped the old finish off the oak table, ot at least I thought I did. Surface prep doesn't lie, and it revealed some less than perfect areas when it came time to use the aniline dye.  These areas stayed lighter, or brown. Hopefully this adds to the handmade charm of a first try.

Table being stripped of original finish

Time to add the dye!

Table after two coats of dye

The top surface took the dye well, but keeping the dye-liquid on the sides and legs was more challenging, a gel might have worked better.  There was a bit of rotating the piece onto the side, waiting to dry, repeat repeat repeat.

After at least two rounds of dye I decided it was time to move forward towards the shellac application, then liming and finishing.  You have to rub the liming wax (aka lime paste) all over the piece, and at this time the grain is ' open' so it accepts the wax.

After applying the lime paste I used very fine steel wool to wipe away the excess. Below you can see the top is about halfway done being rubbed with the steel wool.

Obviously this is the most exciting step! So many unknowns the first time! Did your dye color choice work? Does it look weird with the lime paste in the wood grain? Did you *$&# up anywhere else and not notice it until now?  All true thoughts.

After the lime paste removal was complete, the final step was to use furniture wax (yes, another wax, but different) to seal the table.

Here is a close-up of the lower shelf. I think that section turned out particularly nice, with bold, even, color and crisp grain contrast. Swoon.

For me this was a multi-evening project, but each step was manageable time-wise. It probably took about a week of fiddling because of the dry time between rounds of dyeing.  Speaking of dyeing wood, it is different than staining, something I learned while researching this technique. Staining wood will supposedly obscure the grain to some degree, but dyeing the wood only adds pigment to the wood fiber and thus won't 'fill in' the grain at all.  The result is a vivid grain pattern that gets highlighted by the lime paste.

So there you have it, a completely unique piece that perfectly compliments the height of my sofa arm.  The materials cost was around $40, and most of that was the aniline dye powder which could be used for many more projects.

Happy freestyling, see the potential for transformation in anything.