Choosing antique chairs

Furniture, stylized in antiquity, bewitches, enchants and transports a person to ancient times, where the world was ruled by beautiful, sophisticated and refined things made from natural materials. Age, taste and worldview are not important - if furniture in a retro style comes into view, no one can resist its unusualness. This simple technique is used by many owners of public institutions, such as cafes and restaurants. Decorating their properties with aged pieces of furniture, they create an atmosphere of coziness and comfort, thereby attracting customers. The greatest demand is for semi-antique chairs, which can be found both in public places and in private households.

Antique chairs look harmonious in any interior, especially the Richelieu model. It is a pleasure to use or even just look at them. The highlight of vintage furniture is its finish, which makes each piece exclusive and unique. The advantages of artificially aged products include their reliability, durability, strength. No visible damage (cracks, scratches and permissible curvature) can affect the service life of such items. Aged chairs are colorful, they attract attention, with their unusual appearance they cheer people up, create an atmosphere of romance of the last century.

It is incredibly pleasant to use such pieces of furniture. Antique furniture products can decorate the halls of public institutions, they will look great in living quarters. These models create an atmosphere similar to that prevailing in bars and restaurants with vintage interiors.

At the disposal of a modern person there are a lot of ways how to age furniture. Advanced equipment and technologies come to the rescue, with the help of which you can realize a variety of retro ideas. To achieve the desired effect "semi-antique", the wooden base of the chairs is often lightened, and cracks and irregularities are created on the surface. It is important not to lose sight of the main rule: the natural look comes first. A product made a few hours ago should look as if it has “lived” for at least a hundred years. Only in this case, semi-antique furniture can become truly elite, comparable to museum samples.

Modern aging of wooden furniture excludes the use of chemicals, so that it retains its properties. A completely different matter - products with bronze plates and wheels.

Artificial aging is performed using the following techniques:

• craquelure;
• scuff effect;
• patination;
• brushing.

The term "craquelure" in translation from French means "cracks formed in the process of painting or varnishing the product." This is nothing more than a violation of the integrity of the top layer of the furniture coating, as a result of which all kinds of patterns appear. Many designers, when working on the interior design of a room, use this particular technique, since cracked surfaces give the interior a special charm. The cracked surface and the pattern on it are called "crackle".

However, in order to perform work in this technique, you must have at least modest experience in this area. Only then will the aging process turn into an exciting experience with a unique result. You can create semi-antique furniture at home, you just need to arm yourself with a set of special tools (varnishes, paints, brushes, etc.) and devote several hours to this business. The result will be a delightful piece of antique-style furniture.

In professional workshops, one-phase or two-phase craquelure can be ordered.

• The first one is used on a plain surface, the armchair or chair must already be painted in a basic tone. After the paint has completely dried, the surface is covered with a one-component varnish and dried again. Next, the main color is applied. Interacting with the paint, the craquelure varnish begins to crack. For strength, the chair is impregnated with transparent varnish.

• The second type of craquelure is used on patterned surfaces. It is quite simple to make a blend with your own hands. To do this, you need to glue a decorating napkin on a hard surface and cover it with varnish, and after 40 minutes, apply a second layer of varnish with cross-shaped movements for the effect of pronounced cracks.

If you use a hair dryer while drying your stool, the cracks will be wider and deeper. To get a contrasting pattern, you can rub pigment, dark paint or gold powder into the resulting gaps, but only after the surface has completely dried. All excess paint is removed with a cotton pad dipped in vegetable oil. Then the product is dried and painted over with acrylic varnish.

The scuff effect is used to make furniture look old and shabby. In this case, you need to work on the choice of colors. Any rich, bright version is suitable as the main color. The next layer is applied with a very light paint of a delicate shade. The combination of such contrasts creates the desired effect of paint faded from time to time. After complete drying, the surface is treated with fine sandpaper and covered with furniture varnish.

Foil, patina, various paints, bitumen are used for patination. Most often, old, but still "running" furniture, which has lost its attractiveness, is patinated. Natural "shabby" can be played up with this method, turning the "antique" look into the main advantage of the piece of furniture. Thanks to this simple technique, even an eye-catching product will take on the appearance of an antique. The golden patina looks especially beautiful on chairs with crossed legs. As a rule, only surfaces made of natural materials are patinated, but sometimes coatings made of MDF age.

After processing with a patina, that is, at the final stage, artificially aged furniture is varnished. If necessary, you can apply more than one layer, but several. After the varnish has dried, the surface is treated with sandpaper, but you need to be extremely careful, otherwise, as a result of careless work, the furniture will not turn out to be old, but sloppy. Patination is a rather laborious process, it requires different skills and experience, perseverance and a lot of time.

Among the variety of woodworking methods, brushing is a success to add age to young wood. The essence of this process is the processing of timber with a metal brush. Brushing can be done on its own or in tandem with other techniques. The task of the master is to remove soft fibers from the top layer of wood, using a simple tool and a certain force, but leave the hard ones intact.

The wood treated in this way is then given an aesthetic "antique" look.A small chisel and a thin drill create "wormholes" - damage caused by insects and time. Starting from the idea of ​​decorating a room that will be decorated with aged chairs, the wood is covered with various varnishes, wax, and stain.

It should be noted that this technique may not be applied to every kind of array. Professionals advise to process oak, larch, ash, walnut in this way. You can also brush wenge, jatoba, merbau. The main requirement of this aging method is that the tree has well-defined soft and hard growth rings. Fruit trees, as well as beech, maple, cannot be aged by brushing.

Today, semi-antique furniture is often made in a rural interior with its sweet simplicity and homely flavor, called country... Within the framework of this direction, pieces of furniture, including chairs, can be made in the style provence, Swiss chalet, Russian rustic.

In addition, artificially aged chairs are widely used in the style rustic, which looks more rude against the background of other directions. It is this moment that determines its peculiarity: the furniture is distinguished by brutal simplicity, it is strong, reliable and at the same time beautiful.

For information on how to make an antique chair with your own hands, see the next video.