Change the look of teak doors?

eamon11

Hi,

the kitchen units, presses in sitting room and built in bedroom wardrobes are old style teak. We are changing the look of the house to a brighter atmosphere and have already put in all new internal doors, doorframes and skirting, in pine. I dont want to rip out the former mentioned items as they are quite solid and practical. Years ago, I saw somewhere a kitchen in teak, but had changed its look by painting on some kind of very light white paint. This paint was so light that the wood grain was still visible and I never thought the units were teak until I opened the door and saw the inside of it which was unpainted.
I would like to leave the grain visible too, whatever I do.

Any ideas,

tks

Double Barrel

Eamon


Is this the look you are trying to achieve? It is pickled oak.
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/9334/img0338r.jpg

eamon11

yes Barrel,

i like that look altough i am not sure this look is possible with my very dark mahonany/teak doors, and still leave the grain visible?

Tks

zebrano.96

you could try white stain and lacquer over top
teak should show the grain through unless you grain fill
try it out on a test peice first
remove existing finish prep surface
stain colour required
finish over stain cut back carefully between coats
make sure products are compatable:)

Double Barrel

Zebrano has got it.
Use a white wiping stain and apply a non yellowing clear finish, lacquer.
Or make your own, you can add as much pigmented lacquer to your clear lacquer as you want, without worry since both products are lacquer.
Or , pure titanium dioxide, mineral spirits mixed together, apply, wipe it off with burlap.
Teak has medium-sized open pores that should be partially filled by the existing finish, but you need to make sure and fill them. The stain will have enough solids to fill the pores.
Good luck and keep us posted

recipio

:rolleyes: Are you sure its teak ? The price of real teak rocketed in the past 30 years so its now confined to ships decks where an oily wood is essential.
They might be iroko but its not a popular wood for indoor joinery.
It sounds to me that either a transparent paint has been used or they have been lime waxed.
Lime wax reacts with the tannin in some woods like oak, chestnut and walnut.
It gives a whitish washed out look. Its readily available so might be worth a try in some discrete corner to assess the looks. ?

recipio

recipio wrote: »

:rolleyes: Are you sure its teak ? The price of real teak rocketed in the past 30 years so its now confined to ships decks where an oily wood is essential.
They might be iroko but its not a popular wood for indoor joinery.
It sounds to me that either a transparent paint has been used or they have been lime waxed.
Lime wax reacts with the tannin in some woods like oak, chestnut and walnut.
It gives a whitish washed out look. Its readily available so might be worth a try in some discrete corner to assess the looks. ?

oops........ Sorry, thats what I get for late night posting.
The doors are obviously wood coloured. You could still try lime waxing ( buy a tin of Liberon lime wax ) and try on a small area.