Antiquing and Distressing Wood

After a quick read through several DYI websites on this topic I decided to find a human being to talk to. I went to Sacks in Dover NJ. They were extremely helpful and made sense of the whole matter. I did not want to paint then stress the wood like most antiquing is done. I dislike painted wood and would prefer to stain it. I was instructed on several ways to distress the wood must of which included physical damage. They were very nice at the store and let me experiment with multiple stains on their demonstration table.

Here is an example of stressing the aspen faux drawers. First the drawers were scratched with a can opener and then holes were punctured with a screw driver. The bottom is MinWax Jacobean stain; the top is espresso. The espresso did not take well on the Aspen.



Here I am stressing oak plywood. To the left is a dry brushing a gel espresso stain. The middle piece is the Jacobean with the gel espresso brush on and then rubbed in. The right most piece is a gel dark mahogany with gel espresso dry brushed on. The gel stain has a more intense hue but did not have the effect I wanted. I opted to use a liquid base of Jacobean and the dry brush gel of espresso.


Below are some more experiments. Mostly are very similar to those mentioned above.

More of the Apothecary

Here is the constructed apothecary minus the top. I need to get a monitor before I can create the top and mount it in.



Some people have said it needs pulls for the drawers. My concern is that if there are knobs on the drawers people will try to pull them. If I do add knobs they will probably be off white porcelain.

Apothecary Images

I have been building my apothecary to stick the computer and screen to drive my thesis and interactive art piece. Apothecaries of decent size were too expensive to buy so I am making one. The drawers are false so I do not have to deal with some of the doors working and other not distracting the user's enjoyment of the piece. Here are some pictures to follow:

Currently figuring out a layout for the false drawers.



Some close up details of the molding and routing work.





The inside consists of hindges that do not show and make the back flush with the sides.



Once the drawers are attached I need to stain and antique the apothecary.

I will install the top once I get a screen to place in it.