Faux Finish

  I love when I get the chance to do a faux job. It doesn't come up as often as I like but I do get to use it in my touch up work occasionally when nothing else will work. I majored as an artist in college so most of the techniques for faux painting are second nature to me, I also love to do airbrush art which I also incorporate into my faux work.

Here is a conference table base in Ebony with a Birdseye Maple panel I faux painted a few years ago as a teaching exercise. The how to follows.

  Here is step one for faux painting some Ebony with a Birdseye raised panel. 

This is just a plywood box I am starting with, butt joints and primed white.

I have taped off where the veneer will be matched.

 In step 2 I have started with the scumbling technique, a kind of scrubbing action with a flogger brush or even a chip brush to create the background wood texture.

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 Here I brush glazed the grain using a pencil grainer, airbrushed some detail and then toned with a cherry dye stain toner to get the base color correct and then sealed.

Tape removed and ready to mask the next section.

Repeating the process on the horizontal veneer using the same glazes.

Two faces done ready for the sides with the raised panel.

  Taping off and scumbling the rails. The stiles will follow, same process just a straight rift grain.

Rails and stile completed, now I just mask off the interior and faux paint the Birdseye Maple. The effect of the raised panel is done by airbrushing the shadows to create the illusion of 3 dimensions.

Another base done at the same time. The finish on these was Milesi 2k urethane.