The art of wood graining.

Creating a wood grain that looks authentic is an art that takes years to master. Wood comes in many types, colors and variations.

As in marblizing,it takes knowledge of the specific species of wood being created. The carefull attention to color and pattern are very important in creating a wood grain.

History of graining

Wood graining, also known as "faux bois" found it's niche in 19th century England and France. For ecenomic reasons wood was often imitated because of the trends of design at the time. Rosewood,mahogany and burl were the rare woods that were most often in demand.

As artisans skills increased, designers saw the value in replicating these rare woods in wood grained doors and mouldings being that it was far less expensive and virtually undetectable as being a replica.

The 20th century brought about conservation of these increasingly rare hardwoods. Many laws have been passed making it quite expensive or impossible to obtain. With this there was a resurgance in the art of woodgraining.

Artisans with experience and extensive training have made it impossible to point out a real wood vs. faux bois. Many artists start with a simple woodgrain ... perfect their hand with that grain and work their way to the more complicated burls and satinwood.

Wood Graining on moldings,doors,home elevators and furniture are often called for by contemporary designers.

Wood Grained Metal Garage Doors

Close-up of a grained garage door panel.

A very popular application of faux graining is on garage and front enrty doors that are often metal or fiberglass. Each surface is different ... some are embossed and others completely flat.

Embossed garage doors can look wonderful once grained. There are limitations as to the amount of detail that the artist can create because ot this embossing.

I've supplied a few examples of some doors that have been grained. It takes an average of 3 to 5 layers of transparent glazes to replicate the luster and depth of the species of wood being created.

Front Entries

Front entries are treated similairly to the garage doors when being grained. Often more detail can be created here. The reason being that we are starting with a perfectly flat canvas (Sorry, .. I'm an artist, so I can call it a canvas).

When starting with a flush surface, we have the opprotunity to create our own pore grain. There are a number of ways to create a pore grain (they're secrets of the trade, so I can't tell you).

Just Kidding... Sometimes the pore grain is created thru flogging. A flogger is a long bristled specialty brush that creates a pretty amazing pore pattern. Another methold to create a pore grain, especially in oak, is to use a check roller. It's an interesting tool thats good at what it does. There are simpler tools that can also create a nice pore grain... steel wool, yep it sometimes does the job too.

I applolgize if I'm getting too technical. I just think this is an important step in the process of creating a nicely grained door. It's most important because this is where your guests are going to get the closest view of the artwork that was created.

.... and if it's well done, ... hopefully they won't even notice that it's a work of art. It's just a beautifully stained wood door. wink wink .... that can stay between us.

*** a special note *** Any exterior graining has the issue of having to hold up the elements. I suggest a healthy clear coat that is proper to the system that was used in creating the graining. The homeowner also as to ve a little vigilent as to what Mother Nature is doing to the finish. Once you start seeing the finish dull, ... It's time for a new clear coat. Once a year if you're in a tropical climate like South Florida. You'd probably be safe with a longer interval of clear coating. But I'd still do it to help protect your investment.

Learn more about graining tools.

Interior graining

WHEW !!!! we're inside. Woo Hoooo, Pardon me, I'm having flashbacks of working on those garage doors in the Floridian summer sun.

Interior graining ... this is where the artistry usually goes to another level. Exotic paneling in studys,columns and grained crown moulding.... great for hiding joints. Bannisters and fireplace mantels are also often grained.

Once of the most dramatic changes that decorative graining can create is when it lands on the ceiling... be it, full planking or just grained beams. The end result is always "WOW"

ALSO, What a better way to go "green". Many of these hardwoods take a life-time and more to grow. If we can create a finish that matches the real thing, why not do it. We can better control the final look of the finish and not have any suprise wild grains that nature often throws into a natural product.

I hope I've left you a little better informed as to what decorative wood graining is about. If you have any questions about graining that I've not addressed here, feel free to contact me and I'll get you the answer... Even if I don't know the answer(I know people), I'll find out. LOL

Learn more about the process of graining.

You're still here?

GREAT!!!

If you're interested in having some graining done ... please also contact me. I look forward to talking to you about whats possible with your project and creating your own rich and elegant faux bois.

Thank you,

Henry J

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