Rustic Furniture

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Finishing Up

Go over every inch of your bark-on masterpiece with very fine sandpaper. This will smooth coarse bark a little but primarily opens up smooth bark or skinned poles to accept a finish. Dust clean and rub all over with furniture oil such as tung oil, walnut oil, or boiled linseed oil. Wipe off the excess and let dry.

After sanding the exposed bare-wood ends of bark-on poles to a smooth buttonshape and applying enough sealer that they are glass smooth, I finish with spar varnish or model-building gloss enamel paint so that they look almost like plastic caps. I choose colors to match the wood—browns, black (good on white birch poles), dark blue, a deep crimson, maroon, or dark forest green. The more pole ends, the less contrasty the finish color. This gives the tiny bit of commercial-looking finish that enhances the rustic quality, implying by contrast that the roughness is intentional.

I sand, stain, seal, and varnish most skinned-pole or wood-plank furniture, as bare light-colored wood gets grubby with heavy use, even if oiled. Staining is best done before assembly. Stains vary from light pine to ebony, depending on the wood and the piece. I use enough coats of sanding sealer to make the wood smooth and follow with one coat of gloss and one coat of matte-texture polyurethane interior floor finish.

Most twig furniture has bumpy seats and backs that demand well-stuffed seat and back cushions. Simple sacks made of rough burlap in night-sky, water, and earth tones and filled with any pillow stuffing are appropriate to the rustic look. Or, pick denim, corduroy, or bright cotton prints. I know of one rustic-furnished room where African animal prints on the cushions inspired fabrication of African-style carved wood sculpture and wall hangings. And another where Southwestern colors in cushions, rug, and wall tapestry joined with rustic furnishings to provide the backdrop for a display of authentic Native American pottery, baskets, and weaving.

I already touched on the ancient Greek, Roman, Chinese, and Victorian British antecedents of modern rustic furniture and how it has filtered through all levels of our own culture over 300 years.

Perhaps the next step in the Rustic Tradition is to provide an even broader intercultural nexus at a postindustrial, lowtech living room level. The sort of simple thing that could make a tiny but quietly significant step in fostering greater integration and understanding between cultures.

Think for a moment where that might lead.

PUBLISHED SOURCES

Adirondack Furniture and the Rustic Tradition by Craig Gilborn. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York. Craig is head of the Adirondack Museum in Blue Hill Lake, NY, and researched the history of Adirondack furniture and its builders and put it along with hundreds of photographs into one of the few coffee-table books I've seen that is worth $65.

Building Adirondack Furniture by John Wagner. Easy step-by-step, illustrated guide to making the flatboard style of outdoor furniture. History of the tradition too. At your book store or by mail for $12.95 ppd from Williamson Publishing, Box 185, Church Hill Road, Charlotte, VT 05445 (800-234-8791).

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