So you've taken the plunge and bought a piece of bare wood furniture. Congratulations! It is an excellent value for the money, and with proper care, can last for many years.
Optimistically, before you made the investment, you already had a clear idea what you desired to do with the piece, but if not, then before you pick up the first tool and start to work, it's time to plan! A bit investment in time now will save you a great number of issues down the road.
Where bare wood furniture is concerned, you essentially have three options for finishing the piece, and they're:
Leave the wood "naked"
Paint it
Stain it
All of these options demands a bit of work on your part in order to protect your investment and maximize the beauty and functionality of the piece.
The simplest thing you can to do "finish" your new piece of bare wood furniture is to leave it in its natural condition. If you choose this option, you'll probably desire to protect the wood by coating it in some type of wood protecting oil (linseed oil is normally used on a wide variety of bare wood), but there are other products available as well. Always, always, always try out first by applying a small quantity of the oil you selected to an unseen corner of the wood to ensure that it will not cause any discoloration or other reaction in the wood. Once assured of this, you can safely apply your selected protective oil to the whole piece.
If you choose to paint your bare wood furniture, you have quite many to think about, aside from color selection. Type of paint, for example. If a piece is to be positioned in a bathing room, you will probably wish to gravitate toward a glossy paint, as these stand up well to the high moist environment. For high traffic/heavily used pieces, semi-gloss paints offer a good balance of attractiveness and durability, and if the piece is planned for a lower traffic/lower intensity environment, then flat or satin finishes will help you fine.
Now's also the time to think about whether or not you will have any kind of border or scrollwork on your bare wood furniture. If you're not specifically artistically inclined, there are a variety of attractive stencils you can use, readily available at home shops (Lowe's, Home Depot), arts and craft shops (Michael's), and often at chain retail outlets (Wal-Mart, Target), so you have got several options. Certainly, if you are artistically inclined or know someone who is, a hand painted border is a great approach to really personalize the piece!
At last, you might choose to stain your new piece of furniture. This is my personal favorite technique of finishing pieces, even though it takes the longest, and if this is the direction you wish to go, again, you have got several decisions to make, beginning with the type of stain you'll use. Stains come in oil-based, water-based, or gel, and while my personal preference runs to oil based, you will want to experiment to find out which works best for you. Certainly, you do not wish to experiment directly on your new piece of furniture, so I recommend buying an unfinished wood shelf of the same type of wood from your local home shop and experiment on that. Once you make a firm selection, you can proceed with confidence and start working on your bare wood furniture direct.
Make a plan, have fun, and enjoy your new piece of bare wood furniture, regardless of how you choose to finish it!
Bare Wood Furniture - The Significance Of Planning: A Few Tips To Decide The Most Excellent For Your Furniture