Pickling Painting Ideas

Selecting Wood and Colors

• The most common materials used in pickled wood finishes are red oak and white wood stain or thin-bodied paints. When red oak is pickled, the completed project takes on a pink hue, which allows the prominent oak wood grain to show through. This distinctive color combination cannot be obtained any other way, and presents interior designers with a host of new options. However, any wood species can be pickled, and the overcoat color does not have to be white. Each wood will respond differently to the pickling process, and the outcome should be tested before selected for a final installation.

Test the Application Method

• After selecting the color and wood species, test the application process on short pieces of wood trim. If the paint is brushed on, and quickly wiped off, the wood will retain only a slight amount of color. If the colored coating is brushed on, and allowed to begin to dry before removal, the colored stain leaves much more color behind. After the color coating is applied, try wiping it down with a rag soaked with the appropriate solvent. This process will remove more of the color and expose more of the wood grain, but not all of the color.

Multiple Treatment Options

• Many different looks can be obtained by the same products. However, when the final application process begins, homeowners should follow the same process on each piece of wood. Make sure the wood is sanded and prepared for finishing the same way it would be if traditional solvent-based stains and finishes were used. Consistency is the key to creating a perfect finished project. If the wood is soft, and a consistent look is difficult to obtain, the colored coating can be cut up to 25 percent with the appropriate solvent. This will provide more time to apply and work with the color coat, and less pigment on the surface at any one time.

Clear Finish Coatings

• Finish coatings must be carefully chosen when using pickled wood finishes. Traditional varnished and polyurethane finishes add an amber hue to the wood surface when applied, so a light pink pickled red oak, for example, would take on an amber hue. If the color coat is an earth tone, this may not be a problem. But to avoid the color change, select acrylic, or waterborne, finishes. Because these coatings are water based rather than built on alkyd oil solutions, they are clear, and will not discolor the finished wood projects.

Coating Dry Times

• The pickled color coat includes heavy layers of built-up pigment on the surface of the wood. This pigment can loosen, or be lifted off the surface while the clear finish coats are applied if the clear coats are worked too extensively by the brush. If possible, spray apply the clear finish coats. Spray-applied coatings dry much more quickly, and do not disturb the stained surface as they are applied.