Windsor Furniture finishes

Finishes

Windsor Chairs were traditionally finished with milk paint. I finish the chairs with two coats of paint then two coats of hand rubbed Danish oil. You may chose to have your chairs finished with two different colors. One common color pattern is one of the red colors as the first coat, then black as the second top coat. As the chair wares over the years, the top coat will ware thin in certain areas exposing the lower color.

You may also purchase the chair unfinished or with any finish of your choosing.

The chairs that were built in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, as are the chairs that I build today, were built with three or four species of wood. The wood species are chosen for the function they are to perform in the chair. If the chair was finished with a clear finish this would highlight the different species of wood. This in part is the reason that the chairs are painted with one solid color.