Thursday 7 May 2020

A Quick Stain

My carpenters, Gregor and Liam, installed their bespoke kitchen wall cupboards in the housekeeper's room in the basement yesterday. When you are restoring a castle, cabinets from B&Q (even if it were open for business) would look entirely wrong. These cabinets feature pitch pine gothic Victorian doors from box pews, and a modern white pine and plywood carcass.

The doors were obtained from Ben's reclaim yard outside Bath, and must have had my name written on them as I bid on them on three separate occasions some years apart. The tale is worthy of another blog entry. The doors are incredibly weighty, being solid wood and 1 ½ inches thick.



wall cupboards before staining

Today, I decided to give the new wood on the front of the unit a stain to see if I could match the warm colour of the antique pitch pine. This is not an easy task as I was using walnut crystals which you brew into a kind of ink. Depending on the strength of the ink and the number of coats applied, you can obtain almost any shade of brown. It is all too easy to go too light or too dark, and all too easy to leave visible brush strokes - so it is very unlike a conventional forgiving stain.

Anyhow, hopefully the after stain look (below) is acceptable enough. New fast-grown wood never looks quite as good as old, but hopefully by bringing them to the same colour the difference is minimised. This staining took all of 15 minutes. The harder part is staining the interiors, tops and bottoms of the unit which will take many hours this evening.




wall cupboards after staining

door detail

I am absolutely delighted with the look of the cabinets. It was very much an act of faith that the pew doors could be repurposed in this way, let alone fit in with the ambience of Balintore Castle. Both Balintore and the doors are theoretically in the gothic style, though perhaps the doors are a little too ecclesiastical. Having said that, some stately homes in the high gothic style, are themselves somewhat church-like. And indeed, why not benefit from the secularisation of society by reclaiming the quality fixtures and fittings? :-)

I have instructed Gregor and Liam to make another wall unit for the housekeeper's room, and this should be installed tomorrow. With two matching units the decor becomes more coordinated and deliberate. And yet another wall unit is now planned for the still room, which is also currently under restoration. The large job lot of small doors, once repurposed, will establish a coordinated look amongst the basement rooms.



13 comments:

  1. remember the tour and lovely afternoon tea and blueberry muffins lol I bet I wouldnt recognise the place now ! take it the bath isnt in the kitchen now ! looks stunning !!!

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  2. Glad you like it. :-) One of the baths has now indeed found its way into a bathroom, as much as it pains me to follow convention.

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  3. What an amazing castle, passed by on motorbike earlier,just had to stop and take a snapshot of your home in the background.love it.

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  4. Would love to get a snapshot of your castle with the triumph in the forefront.

    Been following Scottish Castles on instagram so amazing the scenery. Balintore has an amazing setting.

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  5. Appreciate if you keep me posted on the next open day, cheers

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    1. I'm sure a castle & triumph picture would not violate lock down. :-) An open day was planned for this summer, but this may be some time now.

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  6. What a fabulous re-purpose of such beautiful doors. Ecclesiastical? - perhaps, or perhaps it is only that you know they were pew doors in their former life.
    The stain you use has me intrigued. Sounds fun, but potentially messy. To avoid brush strokes, can you apply it with a rag / cloth?

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    1. Glad you like the re-purposing. :-) I would say the style of the woodwork is definitely Ecclesiastical - it's not just that they are definitely box pew doors. I have some of the matching pew ends. One of the most sought after reclaim items are pew seats as these are long and thick pieces of quality timber that can be recycled easily. The ends often get left over!

      Perhaps a rag would help - not sure what the professionals use. I was pressing my brush as hard as I could against the wood. Of course, varnishing them in the horizontal position would help. Thanks for the advice.




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  7. My Dad has been taking me to Balintore castle since I was 10 (now 28) and I'm so happy I've found tour blog as I've wanted to see the progress for so long! I've moved to Australia now but I really would love to visit the castle one day!

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    1. I am delighted you are maintaining your connection with Balintore Castle via the blog even though you are now in Australia. You are very welcome to visit again of course.

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  8. Smart repurposing. The pew doors are meant to reside in the castle now.

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