Painting / Staining / Lightening wooden picture frames

I quite like the grain on them, they might not complement the paintings but it would be a shame to mess with them.

No use at all I know...

Liberon sell a ‘wood bleach’

osmo have a finish they call ‘raw’ which is designed to prevent wood darkening when it’s oiled - it has a trace amount of white pigment in it. I find the results are very variable with different wood species though and can look quite patchy and blotchy

you could wire brush it along the grain before painting / sanding. Also maybe not white - a tone or hue that’s complimentary to something in the painting perhaps

dc1988 - I like the wood too, but they don't help these paintings and I have a few others that I could use.

I really need a variety of colour and tone finishes to give mor eoptions - and hopefully sell a few more. Selling one a month and painting 2-3 means I build up a backlog which is why I do other stuff, like riding, to burn my time up.

Some lime wax? We use it in work. Makes a lovely finish on a nicely grained moulding.

If you’ve got some offcuts to play with you can mix up an instant aging solution that basically triggers the reactions  that take place when wood ages and greys naturally outdoors

Get a big tub of vinegar and stuff some wire wool or iron filings in and leave it steep for a few days.

then treat the wood with it - red / brown tannins in the wood turn grey over the course of few minutes. You can wash the solution off (let the wood completely dry to see what colour it really is) and re-treat a few times. You sort of retain the woodiness but it becomes more uniform tonally and a mid grey is a good colour to present art against (art galleries are typically white these days but only because white paint is cheap - traditionally they’d have grey walls)

test it on some scraps though as the mix will practically ebonize some woods (in a very pleasing way actually). With softwoods there’s often not a lot of tannin to react with but I find leaving wood out in the sunlight for a few days before treating it seems to help

I should also mention… it absolutely stinks. So make sure whatever container you use has a good lid.

Get a big tub of vinegar and stuff some wire wool or iron filings in and leave it steep for a few days.

Have you tried that on oak maccruickseen? In my experience getting anything iron near oak just turns it black.

Quite agree with a bit of random experimentation if you have some offcuts. How about toilet bleach? Other than that I have no experience to offer!

Painting them a nice colour should not be ruled out, losing grain feels like a bummer but sometimes a painted frame is just nicer.

Have you tried that on oak maccruickseen? In my experience getting anything iron near oak just turns it black.

yes. It turns black but in a really nice way. It looks ace 🙂

How about toilet bleach?

that Liberon stuff I linked to is a specific formulation for wood . Regular household bleach on its own won’t work but I’d also caution against mixing stuff yourself as you can give yourself a nice lungful of chlorine gas and we should all be mindful of who started this thread.

a nice lungful of chlorine gas and we should all be mindful of who started this thread.

Wise words indeed.

Well ventilated area please WCA!

Some lime wax? We use it in work. Makes a lovely finish on a nicely grained moulding

Mrs is a picture framer and this is what she recommends. Will basically turn it white but keep the grain.

Lime wax sounds nice than smelly vinegar so will start with that.

Cheers

Here is a quick update after finally getting around to liming one of the frames.

I will see what 'she' thinks about it before doing and more but it is quick. easy and I don't think it looks that bad. I might play around with more layers to see what happens but pleased with this first attempt