Finisher for walnut home/office

[mdelgiorno]

Help! My home/office isn't done but it's close enough that the idea of putting a finish on it is keeping me up at night. No time, no experience.

The room consists of three walls like this:



Some built-ins that look like this:



And a freestanding desk that looks like this:



The desk is solid walnut. Everything else is mixed solid walnut/walnut ply. If you are interested in coming by for a look and submitting a bid, just let me know.

thanks,
Matt

[nelsone]

Man, that's going to be stunning! Did you use both hardwood and ply? My recommendation on a finish would be to spray it with shellac first, garnet works nicely with walnut!, and top coat with lacquer.

Good luck, I can't wait to see finished pics!

[Ozzie-x]

As a walnut veteran, I would also suggest some kind of oil as a first coat to bring out the color and figure in the walnut. I like Danish oil and have been using the medium walnut tint lately, this helps even out the color of the walnut. I'm not much on staining but this technique does help on walnut. After the oil, then go with Ed's suggestion of shellac and lacquer. May want something more durable than lacquer on the desk top and high abuse/wear areas.

Thanks much for the input. I went out this morning and bought some watco medium walnut danish oil, amber shellac, and lacquer. I'll try a few test pieces (but if anyone wants the work, still feel free to let me know!).

What do you recommend in terms of sanding before and between coats? There is a lot of wood in this room (mix of solid and ply), so I'd like to keep the sanding steps to a minimum. For example, I've read about people wet sanding the oil in, which is supposed to fill the pores and get a better sheen, but that would be a ton of work on a room this size. Maybe I can put less work into the walls and save it for the desk and built-ins.

[mdelgiorno]

Thanks for the good advice on finishing walnut. I've been experimenting with danish oil (medium walnut), amber shellac, and satin lacquer. I've read here and on other sites that orange shellac does wonders for walnut, but my wife didn't care for the tint it was giving the wood. So I think I'll just do the danish oil and the lacquer. I've read about people getting good results by wet sanding the danish oil in so I'll try that next.

That said, there is a LOT of finishing to be done in this home/office. Are there any experienced finishers out there who want to take on some work?

[WDHTRIM]

WISH I WAS CLOSER ID BE HAPPY TO TACKLE THAT JOB FOR YOU AND COULD HONESTLY USE THE WORK.

[Phil S]

First, your woodwork looks great and the finished product should be stunning. I am a contractor and typically oversee a fair amount of finishing. The subs I use are very good, reasonably fast and not all that busy these days. If you want me to I will ask them if they want a side job.

Phil