Need help with finishing timber feature wall

[Wallie78]

Hi guys,

We are just about to install quite a large timber feature wall to the interior of a new house build. We need to finish it once up and we love the current colour of the New Guinea rosewood we are utilizing. We are concerned once we finish it that it will become too dark or too golden in colour.

any advice on the best way to finish it and retain its current colour as much as possible? We looked at a clear wax that seemed to work but just not sure as a newbie to the whole thing and talked the missus into it on the provisor it wouldn’t change colour hugely 😬

any help or advice is greatly appreciated

[havabeer69]

if the timber going to be smooth/finished or semi rough?

i would look at a water based finished due to the smell, and it won't react to UV and darken over time like some oil based coatings will. have a look around at some of the 2part flooring coatings as well as it may be more cost effective depending on the size of the wall

any pics?

[Wallie78]

Thanks mate, will be a smooth finish...wall is about 6m long by 4m high...no pics as yet as going up in about 4 weeks but just trying to line everything up....

[Robson Valley]

The surface of woods look like that because there is air, not water, in the surface wood cells.
Refill those cells with anything, displace the air, and you will see the fresh, saturated appearance of the wood.

Spray on some sort of a transparent sealer which will sit on top of the wood. Then a more rubust/durable finish.
A wax might sit on top, too viscous to soak in.

I do a lot of wood carving in western red cedar (Thuja plicata), a common local wood.
Some of it goes deep chocolate brown with any kind of a transparent finish.
So, I select the wood for the carving up front. Knowing that to some degree, it will be darker if polymer-finished.
I really do like MixWax Tung Oil Protective Finish. 4 coats a week apart is a good sealer.