Thread: how to make rustic effect

Distressed or rustic... or both?

Thanks,Harry,but what is the different? Can you teach me?

Hi,
here is a link to video making a rustic chair [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Oc-oT53UQ]YouTube - Rustic furniture[/ame]

And another link [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIWhLCgFrLE]YouTube - Log Furniture Manufacturing by Montana Woodworks[/ame]

The following link gives some tips on how to make furniture look distressed
How to Distress Unfinished Furniture : Home Improvement : DIY Network
Good luck!

Hi Steck
thanks for you links, i understood already.
Thanks.

There is some utterly rubbish furniture being sold as "rustic". Sometimes it appears to have been distressed by swinging a 9" angle grinder or a power plane running at full speed across various surfaces, at other times they've done weird things like jointing boards of differing thicknesses and having loose tenons exposed at the ends of panels. Then the whole lot is given a nice glossy varnish or lacquer finish. It often looks like something a 1st year apprentice could produce; if he had no pride in his work and actually enjoyed being flogged.

All that stuff looks ghastly. To me, rustic furniture is usually fairly chunky with little decoration. Working surfaces are hand planed smooth, other surfaces are left either with saw marks or scrub plane grooves. Joinery like dovetails and mortise & tenons can be visible and usually look better for it. Edges are rounded or chamfered and the only finishes should be oil, wax or shellac. I've always felt that rustic furniture should look like it was entirely hand made, but in a bit of a hurry with little consideration for frills and decoration.

If you want rustic do what all the other makers do,flog it around for a while with a lump of chain ,gives it that well used look.

love the shavehorse in that first video! Wish our timbers would split with a whack from the froe

Cheers
Michael

Wait till you see Stan Ceglinski split shingles (if you go to the Wood work show!!)