A Continuing Niche

 

Last week.

 

This week!

 

Yesterday!

 

BEFORE. The door had some profound alligatoring.

 

AFTER. Gorgeous! I am using denatured alcohol to dissolve the old shellac. The process takes away a lot of the built up shellac but not all the shellac. The oak still retains a finish. If I sanded a section you would see white wood as opposed to this lovely finish.

 

BEFORE.

 

AFTER.

 

BEFORE. The hardware of the as yet restored telephone closet door.

 

AFTER. The north door. After taking off the hardware, I also use denatured alcohol to remove the old shellac, and then just gently buff with 0000 steel wool.

 

Sooooooooooooooo fabulous.

 

 

26 Comments

  1. Ruth Anne on April 4, 2018 at 10:08 am

    Oh, Ross, you dear dear man. THANK YOU! for all the lovely painstaking work you are gifting the world and the Cross House in particular.

  2. Vilya on April 4, 2018 at 10:11 am

    It looks so good!! I am obsessed with the niche, so every post about it is appreciated! 🙂

  3. Brendan on April 4, 2018 at 10:14 am

    Absolutely amazing. The light colored woods/finishes are so beautiful. It is a joy to watch your progress!

  4. Laura on April 4, 2018 at 10:21 am

    The 1894 Cross House HAS to be singing “A-Mazing Grace”. I can feel her pride increase in each reveal you perform, Ross!

  5. Nikki on April 4, 2018 at 10:42 am

    There is something almost seductive about the revealed wood surfaces. They cry out to be touched. Gorgeous!

  6. Annette on April 4, 2018 at 11:26 am

    The wood in the niche is looking stunning. Not sure how yr elbow is feeling but gosh it looks gorgeous.

    • Ross on April 4, 2018 at 12:15 pm

      Oh, my elbow is fine, Annette!

      All the work is being done by my cats.

      I have been training them.

      • Annette on April 6, 2018 at 10:46 am

        😂😂😂

  7. Mike on April 4, 2018 at 12:03 pm

    I am curious, will you now leave the wood as-is, or will you put a coat of varnish on it? I am a little jealous of your light wood trim; I have found that my trim, under umpteen coats of paint, was actually very dark originally. That is NOT what I expected to uncover, and I was really reluctant to take back the light maple stain I had bought and exchange it for a darker shade.

    • Ross on April 4, 2018 at 12:13 pm

      I am careful about how much old shellac I remove. The ideal is that some remains. But sometimes too much is removed, and the wood became too blond. In such areas I will put on a single coat of amber shellac. Otherwise, what you see in the above images will remain as is.

  8. Stewart Mclean on April 4, 2018 at 12:45 pm

    Is that wallpaper that I see over the door in the niche?

    • Ross on April 4, 2018 at 12:52 pm

      Yes, but not for long.

      The paper is 1950s.

      • Stewart Mclean on April 4, 2018 at 12:55 pm

        Do you save samples of wallpapers like that, which are not original, but were a part of the house for many years?

  9. Kim on April 4, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    So Ross, I was just dreaming …
    I know the restoration of the phone booth will be an exciting novelty for the house – the high-tech communications hub of many yesterdays. Though novel, such rooms are obviously, no longer necessary and I was wondering, will you repurpose it temporarily to be something else? A coat closet? A handy seasonal storage closet? A wine cupboard, perhaps? Only mildly curious if you’d even planned on any “use” for it at all really…
    Recalling the quirky “Dark Shadows” movie, the *secret treasure room* behind the fireplace became the place where Michelle Pfeiffer’s character kept her macramé. It was such a 70s thing, it just gave me a giggle. 😉

    Will this once magical booth ever again transport a weary traveler home or, possibly to some far off, exotic location? I can see the interior walls pinned with postcards from everywhere, of unknown people & places – past and present. It could become the house’s private, ever evolving, mini art installation.

    Truly excited to see beauty revealed. 💙

  10. Seth Hoffman on April 4, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    I risk asking a question you’ve already answered, but that I haven’t read. You clearly are the expert at carefully stripping bad shellac, however, and as I anticipate doing it in most of our house, I want your secrets!

    What tool do you use for stripping with the alcohol? Do you use the 0000 steel wool directly, or do you first use a rag (of what type?) soaked in alcohol, then follow with the steel wool? Any other special techniques? You are having amazing results, with what appears to be minimal re-staining or blotchiness, and I would love to achieve your results on my work!

    • june on April 4, 2018 at 7:39 pm

      I have the same kind of question: do you use an old toothbrush, artist brushes or what to get into the nooks and crannies of the detailing? Those places would have a buildup of shellac, dirt and yucky? How are you getting it so nicely done with out going TOO far?

  11. Miss-Apple37 on April 4, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    The difference is stunning. The woodwork is so gorgeous, so detailed! So much better now!!

  12. Dan Goodall-Williams on April 4, 2018 at 6:38 pm

    Just amazing!!

  13. Cindy Belanger on April 4, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    Amazing job, I just love the style of the woodwork, beautiful. So much easier than stripping the finish off. My husband did this on some windowsills in our former old house and they turned out so well. He called it reamalgamation. Not sure is this is spelled correctly.

  14. Kerri on April 4, 2018 at 7:47 pm

    It’s looking great Ross. It continues to amaze me how different it looks when the old shellac is removed. I’m glad you were able to raise the ceiling back up to the original height. Does it make a big difference? I imagine that it would.

  15. Dawn Rocco on April 5, 2018 at 6:33 pm

    I sure wish I would of known about that stuff when I did my house. Amazing! Will you be removing and repairing the wood where the light switch was/is?

  16. Steven Radtke on April 5, 2018 at 11:33 pm

    Are you reshellacing?

  17. Andrea on April 6, 2018 at 8:32 am

    Aaaaand you gave me the close up pictures I was hoping for! Thank you! Beautiful!

  18. Chad on April 6, 2018 at 9:29 am

    It’s amaazing how much cheerier it looks now. This shouldn’t be as surprising as it is. If I had as many awesome details to restore as you do, I’d probably be jumping back and forth between them and living in a ruin for decades.

  19. JET Texas on April 6, 2018 at 10:08 am

    The Cross house restoration is turning me on to lighter wood. You can really see all the magnificent details with the darkened shellac removed. I don’t know where I got this idea from, that darker stained wood is more expensive and stately. Probably my mom.

  20. lisa roberts on December 8, 2019 at 9:46 pm

    It really is soooooooooo fabulous!

Leave a Comment





Your email address will NEVER be made public or shared, and you may use a screen name if you wish.