Bathroom vanity project

[Ryan Tremaine]

Hi all. I've been reading this forum for a while now but I think this is my first post. I thought I'd put up some pictures of the bathroom vanity I built as part of our bathroom remodel. The construction images are in descending order which might be a bit confusing.
http://tremaines.smugmug.com/gallery/3494273_J3jeY/1/195250280_H6dcj#265787309

I'm relatively new to hobby, about 2 years now. Here are some other projects I've done if you're interested.
http://tremaines.smugmug.com/Woodworking

- Ryan

[Larry Fox]

VERY nice. I have to build a bathroom vanity for my brother here soon for spending two Saturdays piping in my air compressor. Can you talk a little bit about the finish schedule you used - it looks great.

[Ryan Tremaine]

Thanks Larry. The finish was actually one of the more challenging aspects of this project. The vanity was originally intended to have a natural maple finish (which is why I built in in maple). Somewhere along the way my wife decided that she wanted it to be REALLY DARK. I must have tried 20 different stains & oils on sample pieces but everything kept looking "washed out", I think because of the light color and tight grain of the maple. What I finally ended up going with, and I really can't recommend it because it took FOREVER is, in the following order:
- 2 heavy coats of Watco Dark Walnut Danish Oil
- 4 light coats of Cabot Dark Oak Satin Polystain
- 2 coats of satin polyurethane

The polystain is a nightmare to work with a brush. It's really difficult to put on an even coat. If you don't get it even than some areas end up darker than others and the only way to get it even is to sand the heck out of it. I'd be curious to hear how other's would have approached the problem of getting a dark finish on maple?

If I had to do it over I would have went with a darker wood to begin with, probably black walnut.

[Jim Becker]

Lovely work, Ryan!

As to the dark finish...water soluble dyes are what I would use for this purpose combined with a glaze to highlight the shadow lines.

[Howie French]

very nice Ryan, looks great.


Howie