So you have taken the plunge and purchased a piece of bare wood furniture. Congratulations! It's an excellent value for the money, and with proper care, can last for many years.

Optimistically, before you made the investment, you already had a clear idea what you desired to do with the piece, but if not, then before you grab the first tool and start to work, it's time to plan! A bit investment in time now will save you a great number of problems down the road.

Where bare wood furniture is concerned, you essentially have three options for finishing the piece, and they are:

Leave the wood "naked"

Paint it

Stain it

All of these choices demands a bit of work on your part to protect your investment and maximize the beauty and performance of the piece.

The simplest thing you can to do "finish" your new piece of bare wood furniture is to leave it in its natural condition. If you choose this option, you will probably wish to protect the wood by coating it in some sort of wood protecting oil (linseed oil is commonly used on a wide variety of bare wood), but there're other products available as well. Always, always, always test first by applying a small amount of the oil you chose to an unseen corner of the wood to make sure that it will not cause any discoloration or any other reaction in the wood. Once assured of this, you can safely apply your selected protective oil to the entire piece.

If you choose to paint your bare wood furniture, you have quite a lot to think about, aside from color selection. Sort of paint, for instance. If a piece is to be positioned in a bathing room, you will probably wish to gravitate toward a glossy paint, as these stand up well to the high moisture environment. For high traffic/heavily used pieces, semi-gloss paints offer a good balance of attractiveness and durability, and if the piece is intended for a lower traffic/lower intensity environment, then flat or satin finishes will help you fine.

Now's also the time to think about whether or not you will have any type of border or scrollwork on your bare wood furniture. If you are not particularly artistically inclined, there are a number of attractive stencils you can use, readily available at home shops (Lowe's, Home Depot), arts and craft shops (Michael's), and often at chain retail outlets (Wal-Mart, Target), so you have got lots of options. Naturally, if you are artistically inclined or know someone who is, a hand painted border is a good way to really personalize the piece!

Finally, you might choose to stain your new piece of furniture. This is my own favorite technique of finishing pieces, although it takes the longest, and if this is the direction you intend to go, again, you have got a variety of decisions to make, beginning with the type of stain you'll use. Stains come in oil-based, water-based, or gel, and while my personal preference runs to oil based, you'll wish to experiment to check which works best for you. Surely, you do not want to experiment directly on your new piece of furniture, so I suggest buying an unfinished wood shelf of the same type of wood from your local home store and experiment on that. Once you make a firm selection, you can proceed with confidence and begin working on your bare wood furniture direct.

Make a plan, have some fun, and enjoy your new piece of bare wood furniture, regardless of how you choose to finish it!

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