Making an object look like wood by using paint (or better yet “glaze”) is the art called wood graining. Wood graining is done with tools such as combs, rubber rollers, rockers, and brushes. The paint or glaze is applied in distinct layers which give the painted wood the look of real wood grain. Let’s look at the process in a generic way, without trying to copy a particular wood species, and the steps involved in painting faux wood grain.
Base Coats
BIN is my preferred base coat and I use it whenever it can be employed -depending on the surface that the graining will be applied to
For those who wish to use only waterbased products, 123 Bullseye is a good product for base coating, but you must be gentle and careful when graining over the top of it with another waterbased graining product, as it will sometimes soften and dissolve under the manipulation of a graining layer over the top.
Coverstain
I have used Zinnser’s Coverstain at times, although it dries to a flatter finish with excellent results as a base coat under latex graining. Coverstain is a quick drying oil based primer that will not soften under a manipulated latex graining layer to follow. The only down side is clean up, as it is an oil. I usually let the brush I use to apply this product dry out, then I dispose of it -without cleaning it out with solvent which creates a waste disposal issue that I like to avoid.
Wood Graining Glaze
Stains
Many stains can be used for wood graining, having the advantage of being pre-tinted to a wood shade. This makes color matching easier. You cannot use the thin, penetrating stain finishes like the standard Minwax penetrating stains, they are too thin and runny and will not hold a pattern. Many gel stains and solid wiping stains (like Old Masters Wiping Stain) will work for wood graining. I like to thicken these stains up a bit by adding some oil or latex graining liquid to them to give them more body and hold, but you can get by without doing this with a little bit of care and patience when manipulating these products. The latex wiping stains or gel stains (where you can find one), hold a lot of promise in the wood graining area because latex paints as a rule, tend to be stiffer than oil based products lending themselves to better pattern holding.
See:
Layers
While many professional painters have developed concise wood graining techniques that can be all done in one layer, they do so for economic reasons and time constraints. You will always get a better looking job if you do it in two or more layers. I like to do a minimum of two and sometimes three layers as outlined below, in what I call under-graining, primary graining and over-graining layers. I also take great pride in doing single layer, fast economical graining, but this takes a lot more skill to do a good looking job than layer graining. If you are doing a one step technique, you may find that an oil based glaze allows more time to add details to your wood graining without drying too quickly.
Main graining
Once the wood graining background layer is dry and hardened (usually overnight, but see label of glaze for specific dry times), you may proceed with the primary graining. This layer is duplicates the strong patterns that you readily see when observing a piece of wood. Primary graining is done with a variety of tools, depending on the wood being duplicated. Rubber rockers, pads, rollers, and combs are used for a variety of grains including Oak. Steel combs and brushes of all sorts are also used for primary graining.
Over-graining
If you wish to have more detail and a better looking wood grain, you may want to also include over-graining. Over-graining is done with a very translucent, washy glaze which is often mottled (See Mottling and Mottlers) which adds even more depth, detail and realism to your wood graining.
Finishing
Once you have finished your wood graining layers, you need to finish it off with a coat or two of varnish, shellac or polyurethane, just as you would real stained wood. The clear finish will protect the wood graining and give it the look of real wood.
Just a note: The solvent in shellac will dissolve a latex graining glaze if you work the shellac too much or too long, so be careful. Better yet, use an oil or latex varnish or clear coat to be safe when clear finishing over your latex graining.
Dividing your substrate into pieces
If you have a large surface to grain like a flush door (or even a panel door), you need to mask off the substrate into smaller wood pieces. This makes for easier graining as you don’t need to race through the graining process to stay ahead of glaze drying times and it adds to the realism of your project.
Related Articles: Oak Woodgraining: Plain Sawn
BIN and 123 Bullseye
These two primers are manufactured by Zinsser (now Rustoleum) and both have excellent adhesion to a variety of surfaces, dry quickly, and can be recoated over top with either an oil or latex paint or glaze. The fast dry of these primers helps to speed up the wood graining process.
As a rule, I like to use BIN under either an oil or latex glaze. Because it is shellac, it will not be re-wetted by the subsequent application of manipulated glaze over the top of it.
All wood graining starts with a base coat. The base coat provides a background color for the wood graining. Base coats are solid color paints or primers that are applied with either a brush or sprayed in the normal paint application manner. The base coat provides a foundational color for the wood graining applied over the top of it. The general rule for what color this base coat should be is that is should be slightly lighter than the lightest color in the wood you wish to replicate. See Color Matching for Woodgraining.
Base coating can be done in either an oil, latex or shellac finish. The sheen level should usually be done in either flat or a low sheen like a satin. It is important to use a base coat that is compatible with the graining glaze (or “paint”) which follows over top. Too high a sheen will in your base coat will interfere with proper inter-coat adhesion. I like to use a couple of different primers for base coating because it solves a lot of issues with one coating.
While you could use a thinned paint to produce your wood graining. A glaze is what professional (as well as DIY’ers) use for best results. A glaze is just a clear paint liquid similar to a varnish, that can be tinted to the needed shade or color for wood graining. Glazes are designed to hold the patterns that are manipulated into them by various wood graining tools like the standard wood gaining rocker. Glazes are not made specifically for wood graining, but rather for all sorts of faux finishing where translucency and manipulations need to hold without flowing out, as in ragging on or ragging off on a wall finish.
My favorite waterbased glaze is the water based glaze made by Modern Masters. This glaze will hold patterns very well and dries fairly hard, making over glazing layers over top safer to apply without disturbing the underlying graining.
Background / Under-graining
If you want realistic wood graining, you need detail. One overlooked component by amateur grainers is the pores of the wood. It isn’t enough to have a proper base coat only, you need to create a wood pore background to go along with the primary wood graining. If you omit this important step, your painted wood grain will look too stark and well, fake. Woodgrain pores are usually done as an under grain layer first before doing the primary grain. Tools used for creating wood pores are the Flogger, Draggers and steel or rubbber combs of various configurations. See Flogging
Base coats are solid color paints. A tinted fast drying primer like BIN or 123 Bullseye can be used to speed up the process.
One of my favorite glazes:Modern Masters Tintable Glaze is a high performing waterbased glaze.
Painting Faux Wood Grain
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Kit Includes: 1 gallon of glaze, 1 gallon of Satin Varnish, 1 Fan Overgrainer brush, 1 Squirrel Hair Swordliner brush, 1 Camel Hair Mottler brush, 1 Flogging brush, and 1 Bristle Block brush. You will also need some paint and basic supplies from your local hardware store.
Woodgraining
Tools
There are a number of wiping tools used for creating a heart grain like that of oak. These tools are made of rubber and are used negatively, to remove glaze.
The most common tool for such is the "rocker".
There are also rollers and woodgraining pads that wrap around a piece of PVC piping used for creating heart graining.
Other tools used to create a heart grain are the lining brush.
A popular version of this type of brush is the sword liner.
Over-graining tools consisting of several liner brushes secured together in a wood block, are used negatively to create fine heart grain.
Combs, made from rubber or steel, are used to create straight grain.
See Related Articles to learn more about how to use these tools to create painted faux wood grain.
