First Coat of Danish Oil is Done!

Doors, drawers, and panels - getting some color

First coat of Danish oil is done, and it looks beautiful. I used Watco Dark Walnut, which is giving us exactly the warm, chocolate brown we wanted. Sorry, the pictures don't show it accurately.

One thing I'm realizing is this kitchen is going to be almost un-photographable on account of the way Walnut reflects light so differently from one angle to another. It'll look entirely different depending on the kind of light or where you're standing. Not sure what the effect will be with all the different panels and doors all over the kitchen.

Before I was able to apply the first coat of Danish, I had to not only sand every surface, but also had to resand all the edges. Evidently the veneer swelled a bit so my nice, smooth edges had become rough and jagged in many places. Naturally, in the process, I went too fast and tore up the veneer in spots. Not too awful though. It's the imperfections that give it character.

So, with the edges fixed, I sanded the flat surfaces with 220 grit and went to town with the Danish oil. I found the Danish really easy to work with. Just wet a rag with the oil and wipe it on. It goes on thin but really gets into the wood.  I worked on 4 or 5 panels at a time, rotating through them trying to keep them all wet for at least a half hour. I ended up doing three successive coats per panel, which seemed to help even out the finish without excess buildup. Some areas would soak right in while others would pool up to let you know they were wet enough, and by the third coat it seemed to be filling in the thirstiest areas pretty well. In hindsight, I think I should have worked the oil in more aggressively than I did. Regardless, after all that, I let things dry another 15 minutes, wiped off any excess oil, and set them aside to dry for 72 hours.

Fast forward to last night. I tried wet sanding with the Danish oil, but met with total failure. I just couldn't get it to stay wet enough, and all it did was build up gunk that smeared the surface. The idea was to build up a slurry of sanding debris that would fill in some of the larger crevices in the surface, but now I'm thinking maybe that only works with solid wood, not veneer. Anyway, I reverted to dry sanding with 400 grit and then rubbing on another coat of oil as normal. That worked out just fine. Danish oil includes some varnish in the mix which is filling in the crevices quite nicely. It's not baby-butt smooth, but I don't think I'm going for a glass finish anyway. A couple coats of wipe-on poly and I should be golden.

FWIW, don't waste your money on fancy sanding blocks. I have two of those 3M rubber dealies, and they've both warped into a curve making them impossible to control. All they do is build up solid gobs of sanding debris in the middle of the sandpaper. I do much better with a simple block of MDF.

So! As of tonight, I've got a second coat of Danish oil on 10 panels... ~30 more to go. Damn the day job! I'm hoping to start demolishing the old kitchen by end of the month, so all these panels need to be done and dry before that.

Steph Says I Should Title My Posts

As I'm nearing the end of the veneering process, I thought I'd share a bit of detail. The total cost for the 7 sheets of veneer was just over a thousand bucks. That's not the detail I wanted to share. The point is, I decided early not to reface the back sides of the drawer fronts and doors as that would have nearly doubled the cost, not to mention adding labor and extra weight. I wasn't sure how this approach would turn out, but it's working out well so far.

Back side of an IKEA drawer front after refacing with veneer

I had to use care when trimming the veneer, but I managed to keep the Nexus Black-Brown finish intact. It actually looks pretty cool.

BTW, all the veneer and special tools came from VeneerSupplies.com. Joe is awesome and his site is full of woody good wisdom. I knew absolutely nothing about veneer before this project, and his site and a few others have provided a priceless education.

So, I'm down to only three panels left to veneer. Two are small pieces that will need to be custom cut to fill spaces above the built-in oven and microwave, so I won't veneer them until after the cabinets and appliances are installed and the exact dimensions are known. The third panel is a large custom end panel for the island, and I haven't purchased the wood for this yet.

So, I'm ready to start applying Danish oil, and then varnish. I'm going with Watco Dark Walnut Danish oil, but haven't chosen the varnish yet - some kind of oil-based poly. I've tested the Danish oil on some scraps of veneer and it's a perfect medium chocolate brown. Still need to make sure it doesn't do anything weird when it comes in contact with the existing Nexus finish. Fingers crossed.

Danish oil test sample - Steph likes it, and so do I

The Danish oil will take some time to do right though. If you believe certain experts, Danish oil actually requires a bit more time and effort than what's written on the can. Probably start this weekend and hopefully finish by end of next weekend. Danish oil takes several days to dry before you can start the top coat, plus it's humid and hot here, so that's not gonna help at all.