The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Furniture Finishing
LACQUER ENAMEL
A coat of lacquer clear first coater is first sprayed on, tinted with some of the body lacquer, followed by one or two full wet coats of lacquer enamel. Stripes, hand-painting or transfer decorations are next applied, protected with clear flat lacquer or gloss lacquer to be rubbed down. Here again it is possible to two-tone by masking off, to decorate parts of the piece with glaze stippling or crackle lacquer, banding with brushing lacquer enamel, or to omit clear lacquer coat.
COLOR SCHEMES
Favorite colors for such furniture include principally the pastel shades and should be selected with care: Fawn, pale blue, pea green, lettuce green, parchment, French and putty gray, ivory, cream and mauve. In the stronger tones Chinese red, jade green and ebony black predominate. All but black may be shaded antique or in a deeper tone of the body color, but with the utmost delicacy or the work is ruined. Black is best banded, striped or lightly shaded with gold bronze. Varnish, and to a lesser extent lacquer, will affect the light colors when applied as a top coat and this should be allowed for.
JUVENILE FURNITURE
Furniture for the children include beds, bassinets, high and low chairs, desks, tables, breakfast sets, etc. Very little of this represents any attempt at real quality in finish, owing to the fact that it stands unusual abuse and is discarded with advancing age. Ordinarily one or two coats of white or tinted paint undercoater, direct on the wood or over shellac substitute wash coats, are followed by a coat of tough oil gloss enamel, left in the natural high lustre or rubbed on higher grade work. Lacquer enamel may be used over clear firstcoater where the selling price permits.
Two-toning, banding, striping, or stencils and transfers on overlays are applied to the top coat and left unprotected, but in darker shades they are put on the flat undercoater and finished over with clear gloss varnish, unrubbed. Much of this work, which is plain in design, can be finished by dipping; cane is finished natural or in the same enamel color as the body, namely, ivory, pink or pale blue.
BATHROOM AND KITCHEN FURNITURE
Bathroom stools and hampers and kitchen stools, chairs and tables are given one or two dip coats of heavy-bodied, good hiding flat white paint undercoater with only light sanding, followed' by one dip coat of high gloss white oil or lacquer enamel left in the natural lustre. Owing to the mixed nature of the woods used in construction which may be of soft or hard fibre the undercoater should be selected with great care so that it will satisfy the suction of the porous pieces. Decoration is confined to banding in a deep blue shade of enamel on kitchen furniture.
