Stain & Finishing Oil Archives - Revive. Refresh. Restore. Lakeside Restoration

Dresser Rehabilitation

October 28, 2025January 6, 2026Posted in before and after, dresser, Furniture, Fusion, Stain & Finishing OilTagged before and after, refresh, restore, upcycle, vintageLeave a comment

Sometimes you just need a garden hose, heavy duty cleaning solution, and a sturdy brush to scrub a piece inside and out. We really believed there was beautiful mahogany underneath all of that gunk and failed finish.

Below is a closeup of the original finish compared to the raw wood after stripping. As you can see, the original finish had developed an alligatored texture and had oxidized to the point of obscuring every last bit of the wood grain.

Mahogany is an absolutely gorgeous wood, and I like to highlight it by pairing it with painted surfaces to frame the beauty. Unfortunately, this species of wood does not like water based products and will shed tannins in response. Tannins are the wood’s natural color and can seep through water based finishes resulting in a tea-stained or “bleeding” effect.

In order to block these tannins from bleeding through and staining the final finish, shellac is a required product to incorporate into your base coat. Below is 1-2 coats of BIN shellac primer. The tannins are so robust, that they are are easily bleeding through the stain-blocking primer. The solution? I added a few additional coats of pure shellac sandwiched between the BIN primer. Patience and time is a requirement when managing tannin bleed.

Mahogany has a very red undertone. The picture on the left is what the natural wood color would be with a clear finish on it. To tone down the red and warm up the finish, we used a walnut oil stain with built-in topcoat. FUSION Stain and Finishing Oil (SFO) is a easy-to use product for staining and sealing wood with one product.

After the tannins were tamed, we completed the trim with FUSION Cashmere to compliment the warm wood. Drawer interiors were sanded and shellacked. New hardware completed the look!

You can find all of the FUSION products used in this project at our online store. This dresser is also available for sale at our Vintage Matters location in Sodus, NY

http://www.lakesiderestoration.net

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Worn Out Veneer Solution

February 8, 2025February 8, 2025Posted in before and after, Furniture, Fusion, Stain & Finishing OilTagged antique, before and after, furniture store, new veneer, refresh, restore, stain, upcycle, veneer, vintageLeave a comment

This desk is so very useful as a checkout counter at our store. At 64 inches long with lots of storage drawers, it’s functional and prettier than a big old table or counter. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been treated well since originally refinishing the oak veneer top and layering with stain and poly. Something most people don’t realize is that anything that will dent, scratch or gouge wood (pressing hard with ball-point pens, dropping heavy items, sliding rough or sharp items) will still cause damage regardless of how much urethane is applied. Wood is wood and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

So…. I pulled it out of use and worked on refinishing it (again).

As you can see above, after carefully sanding out the areas with damage, the grain was still visible in some areas, but no longer in areas with heavy damage and therefore deeper sanding. In addition, the stain really didn’t want to soak into those areas since there were effectively no pores available, so the finish took unevenly. Ugh. I love this desk! What to do?

What a great opportunity to learn how to apply new veneer!!

Following the instructions on the can and those provided by the knowledgeable staff at our local Woodcraft store, I gave it a try!

I absolutely love the results so far!

After making sure everything was stuck on and sanded, I stained and sealed with FUSION Ebony Stain and Finishing Oil (stain and topcoat in one!).

I absolutely LOVE the result, and it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.

Next time, I will roll on a can of liquid adhesive rather than spray, as I found the spray terribly messy, difficult to clean up, and too easy to puddle. I also skipped the router and used my razor knife to score and sander to trim since my cuts were so close, there wasn’t a ton of overlap to remove.

The EASIEST part was staining and sealing with Fusion SFO. Pour on, smear around, allow to soak and wipe off.

DONE.

I can’t wait for this to cure so I can start using it again!!!

You can find Fusion SFO at our store Lakeside Restoration in 1833 Monroe Ave Rochester, NY 14618.

You can also purchase for shipping or pickup at our online store http://www.lakesiderestoration.net

Large Sideboard Before & After

February 5, 2024January 6, 2026Posted in before and after, Furniture, Fusion, Stain & Finishing OilTagged antique, before and after, furniture store, refresh, restore, upcycle, vintage2 Comments

AFTER

BEFORE

A friend had been planning to bring this sideboard back to life before realizing it may be too large a project for their workspace. So, a little drive with the cargo trailer and BOOM; I’ve got myself another project squeezed into the workshop! At 66.5 inches long, and HEAVY…what a Beast!!

Although the drawers and doors functioned well, there was damage to address. The finish was generally worn and dinged, deep scratches in the top and front of the drawers, chipped & missing veneer around the base, and a large damaged area on the top that bubbled the veneer and stained beneath the finish. Feel free to zoom in on the above pics to see more details of the damage.

STEP 1: CLEAN!

Inside and out, this piece was pretty dingy.

FUSION TSP Alternative is our go-to cleaner for grimy things and this sideboard was scrubbed inside and out with it. The drawers were removed, the interior case vacuumed and spruced up with Shellac in order to reseal the wood and eliminate any musty smells that could be lurking.

View/Purchase TSP at Online Store

Hardware, doors and drawers were also removed for sanding. Cleaning and prepping is a great time to really inspect the entire piece and assess repair needs. I kept a pad on hand to jot notes on this one!

STEP 2: REMOVE OLD FINISH

Since we have a fabulous Festool sanding system, we were able to sand indoors without worrying about dust, and with the cushioned insert attachment beneath the sandpaper, sanding the curves on these drawers was a breeze. Do not try this with a standard flat, hard sander, as you will flatten out the curves and if it’s veneer, sand through it.

Removing a finish in preparation for staining is time-intensive regardless of strategy (chemical stripper vs. mechanical sanding). When sanding thin wood veneer, you need to take extra care and go slow with finer grits in order to insure you do not damage the wood. Each drawer on this sideboard took approximately 30 minutes to sand. When you start adding that to the time needed for stripping the sides, top and doors…well, you can see why this type of restoration is a true commitment!

The payoff is illustrated below, the old finish in the first pic was obscuring the beauty of the grain revealed in the second pic.

Without the old grungy finish in the way, we could also see how beautifully laid out the front veneer was to complete grain line details.

a b c

We then applied Fusion Natural SFO and additional coats of Fusion SFO in Golden Pine to tone down some of the natural red tones. Since Fusion SFO contains both stain and finishing sealer, we had no need to add additional polyurethane on top of this beautiful, water-resistant finish. Ultimately, we also decided to paint the frame and base Coal Black since the damage was so extensive that it required patching. The condition of the wood often drives our “paint it or stain it” decisions. We strongly believe that both paint and stain have their place in updating antique and vintage furniture.

We couldn’t wait for curing to stage this for pictures, we were so struck by how handsome this former Beast turned out!

Below are the FUSION Mineral Paint products we used to complete this project and the link to purchase them from our online store. You can also visit our brick and mortar locations in Rochester and Sodus, NY!

Online Store

Another Desk Revived!

July 26, 2023August 20, 2023Posted in before and after, Furniture, Furniture Business, Fusion, Painted Desk, Stain & Finishing OilTagged before and after, farmhouse, furniture store, painted furniture, refresh, restore, upcycle, vintage

Dressing up a Plain Jane Dresser

May 31, 2020Posted in before and after, dresser, Furniture, Fusion, Fusion Gel Stain & Topcoat, Stain & Finishing OilTagged antique, before and after, color, furniture store, handpainted, knobs, prep, recycle, refresh, restore, revive, sacred sage, upcycle, vintageLeave a comment

This dresser is a great example of how Fusion stains can be used to rejuvenate a finish without stripping. This is the Prep stage of this dresser; it was washed and lightly scuff-sanded. The top, however, had some pretty deep scratches.

For initial blending in of the coloration, we used one coat of Golden Pine Stain & Finishing Oil to soften some of the deeper discoloring.

Next: Double Espresso Gel Stain & Top Coat to the Rescue – first coat is still wet in the photo below.

This is basically a pigmented polyurethane, so it can go directly over an existing finish without sanding or stripping. The pigmentation provides some opacity to obscure flaws and scratches like the ones we started with. The more coats of this product applied, the more opaque the finish becomes. I like to try and find the balance that allows for correction of the old finish while still showing through some of the original wood grain.

I prefer to apply this product with a wide foam brush, but it can be applied with a roller or bristle brush. It’s very important to practice with it and find your preference!

Looking better after the the second coat! Long, even strokes are key to an even finish.

Did you notice that along the way the body of the dresser got a nice coat of Sacred Sage?

And here it is after the second coat is dry. Gel Stain & Topcoat has a matte finish once dried – this also helps to de-emphasize flaws in the surface so it’s a more forgiving finish.

If you look close, you can still see a few of the deeper scratches under the finish, but it is such an improvement over the original condition – and all without sanding.

Additionally, since this is an all-in-one stain and topcoat, it does not require an additional step to seal.