finishing old and new wood

Messages
1,939
Location
Oliver Springs, TN
A friend asked me if I could make them a table from one of her Great Grandmothers doors. I think it's yellow pine. The problem will be matching the old wood to the new. It was painted white at one time and had what was maybe a varnish under that. I scraped and sanded trying not to remove the patina of the wood. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the door has a lot of red undertones, if that makes sense. front door.jpgI'm going to use an antique walnut gel stain on the door to even out the color for the most part.

The base for the door will be from white pine. As you can imagine the new wood is a lot lighter than the old. Here's my first attempt. I put a base coat of some dye I had laying around and then top coated with the gel. You can see the color just isn't right. finish.jpg Any ideas on what to do the get the colors closer?

Before you think her family is a bunch of hobbits, I cut the door down to five feet to better fit her space.:D
 
Well John, just some ideas from far left field that would remove the color problem completely.

maybe make the new parts look very new and slick, and have the older parts looking more distressed in their natural color.

Sort of like a frame around an old painting.

I'm not sure if it would be a good looking piece or not, but from an artistic point of view, vs pure aesthetics, she might like it.

OR

Maybe use some type of metal for the legs and glue up the rails and styles as a top.

Maybe pick up a decent quality black twisted iron metal leg table on Craigslist and change tops?

The rails and styles distressed as they are and covered with low gloss clear might be nice as a top.

Maybe leave the door knob in place on the top?





just some ideas.
 
A clarification is needed regarding the base. She wants a platform on casters 32" x 60" so she can store things underneath. I'm making two raised panels to mimic the raised panels on the door for the "legs" that will be around 12" x 32" and sit on the base. The legs and platform will be from the new white pine. That's what I'll try and match.
 
So what color are you looking to match, lighter 2/3rds golden oak- 1/3 hickory thinned 50%
If the dark, 1/3rd van dyke brown - 1/3rd brown maple 1/3 thinner
Should but you in the ball bark. I see this finish a lot.
 
Top