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Small Cabin Forum / Cabin Construction / Finish for knotty pine??? (Continued)
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GoneCountry
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# Posted: 26 Jul 2023 00:49 - Edited by: GoneCountry
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Hello again. I posted about this a few months ago. I had asked what the norm is that most people are finishing their pine tongue and groove walls with. I know a lot of people clear coat it and others stain it. Our cabin came with sheetrock but had stained wooden interior doors. We tried to match the doors and decided on Shellac Amber. I applied one even coat of it before it was installed on the walls...the carpenters had agreed to squeeze us in and they were coming in 3 days to put it on the walls so I got one coat of Shellac applied on the saw horses to save fighting a ladder later on. Now that its been installed on the walls, I'm not exactly happy with the results.
I'm debating whether a second coat will even give me the results I want. I've attached pics of it. It turned out too yellow for my taste, even though golden yellow is what we were going for to match the doors. Some of it looks blotchy too and I found out later that a wood conditioner is sometimes used beforehand. We are going to have wood put on the ceiling soon too and will definitely get a experienced painter involved.

I see cabins ALL THE TIME that have yellowish golden walls that still have a slight white natural look, how are these usually finished???

If anyone here has walls similar to this, can you post pics of them and share the steps of how you finished them??? Thanks in advance.
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Steve_S
Member
# Posted: 26 Jul 2023 05:54
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I used several Gallons of Shellac for open-space ceilings trims and such. It will darken as it ages, even the clear shellac will do that while the amber will get deeper in colour. There is a gotcha many are not aware of. White Pine does behave pretty well and darkens evenly but Red Pine gets darker and really shows up the grain which really pops after a couple of years. FYI, I have White & Red Pine, White & Red Cedar as well as oak, maple, hickory & black walnut in my home (I hate synthetics).

Shellac unfortunately has No UV Protection whatsoever ! So where the sun reaches the wood surface it will fade / blanche while areas that are not in direct sunlight will darken. As a result my window casings & trims are done with Water Based Gloss Urethane with UV protection. Washroom & Kitchen being subject to humidity also had all of the wood coated with Urethane as Shellac is terrible for humidity.

Don't Panic !
A "neighbour" down the road build a big log home and they stained it and as they were doing it they PANICKED as it went on and made the house orange - and I mean Bold Orange - The freaking out was serious ! (Huge house with massive logs) but when the company rep came he calmed them down by showing similar applications and that by 1 year it will no longer be orange. He was right, it came out as a gorgeous dark amber pine and looks awesome, now 5 years later still looks amazing.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 26 Jul 2023 10:21 - Edited by: gcrank1
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Ime adding the amber (when adding color agents start light) was an expedient to getting some 'aged look' we wanted without having to wait an age.
Now that it is up and done it is what it is. I suggest it will grow on you? If you think not I cant imagine stripping all that for a redo!
Fwiw, I Love what yours looks like

GoneCountry
Member
# Posted: 26 Jul 2023 10:45 - Edited by: GoneCountry
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Thanks for the comments so far. The Shellac label said it won't darken with age so I didn't expect it to. Gcrank1, we've showed pics to a professional painter and he's coming next week, he thinks a second coat is all it needs to give it that complete finished look.
But still, I feel like we are missing something. On the sample piece that we applied 2 coats on, it looked to get quite a bit darker and turn a bit orange. I guess I'm seeing aged clearcoat when I see all of these local cabins in our area. Here is a pic of the cabin we almost bought but couldn't make a deal on. It was beautiful.
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Steve_S
Member
# Posted: 26 Jul 2023 11:35
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I can only speak for the Zinsser Brand shellac I used, now there are several brands with different make up but I never used them. The shellac itself does not darken but the pine does. It also seems that formulas may have changed a bit because raw shellac is very costly.

Malamute
Member
# Posted: 26 Jul 2023 20:23 - Edited by: Malamute
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I dont use any finish on T&G ceilings and walls, I like how it ages out naturally, and am not crazy about adding more chemical outgassing to the living space.

One guy was concerned about how light the walls were in the house he bought from me, I took him to another that was a year or two old, he liked it quite a lot.

I also understand that many finishes need the wood to be sanded before a finish is put on it for it to take evenly and correctly.

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