JS Painting Company has been working to restore The Virginian Apartments in downtown Seattle. This 100 year old building features incredible design elements that no longer exist in modern construction. One such component is their main stairwell which is built of gorgeous old growth timber. Before we got to it, the stairwell was riddled with scuffs and scratches. We were able to restore the stairwell by scuffing all surfaces, staining all surfaces to match the original color, and applying two coats of a high gloss varnish. The stairs themselves were previously painted, so we just repainted those.
For the stain, we used Sherwin Williams Wood Classics "Wild Berry" Oil Stain. This product is pretty good. It's fairly user friendly - apply with a brush, wait 5-10 minutes (maybe even less depending on the desired darkness), wipe off with a rag. It doesn't gum up any more than other stains, the price is fair and the colors are varied and pretty easy to manipulate. It says something that we were able to easily blend a prepackaged color into 100 year old banisters.
For the clear, we used Sherwin Williams Wood Classics FastDry High Gloss Varnish. This is an excellent product in my book. It is pretty user friendly and it would be my absolute first recommendation for the DYIer who wants a high gloss finish. The open time (i.e. the amount of time that it takes for the product to develop from wet and workable to tacky) is fairly short - probably less than 5 minutes in a heated area. That's an okay quality but something to be aware of. It's recoat time is around 4 hours which is quite nice because it lets you finish a project inside of a single day. The thing I like most about this product is that it leaves you with a level, high gloss finish with hard durability and beautiful depth. With only two coats of a brush application (scuff sanding between coats) you can achieve a look that I haven't seen short of lacquer with spray application. I highly recommend this product.
For the paint, we used Sherwin Williams All Surface Enamel "Polished Mahogany" Low Sheen. We went with this product because it dries to a hard and durable finish. We were working with railings, trim and stairs so we needed something that was going to stand up to an apartment building's high level of traffic. This product costs a little more than most of your trim paints, but it comes in deep bases so you can get any color you want. It also comes with a slightly higher sheen. We wanted something that was going to blend into the stained wood without detracting from it. So we got used the Low Sheen which gave them some sheen (probably something closer to a true Satin) but not more than the features we wanted to highlight.
The building is looking like it had in its former glory. A glance down the hallway sends a shimmer your way and screams elegance.
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