Turn Pine Wood Furniture into Objects of Art

I have always loved wooden furniture. Unfortunately, in South Africa, wooden furniture is very expensive. The only wooden furniture that is affordable are items made from pine wood, which does not really fit in with my taste in home décor. So, what to do when you have a beer income with champagne taste?

Years ago, my uncle gave me a very handy tip. Throughout the years I have applied the tip to several pine wood items, turning them into objects d'art. However, I have not been able to successfully apply it to other types of wood.

Here is the tip:
Use a heat gun and burn the pine wood with the heat gun. Be careful not to linger for too long on any one place with the heat gun, or to bring the heat gun too near the wood ~ this will cause damage to the wood. Sand the wood down thoroughly and voila! The grain and the knots of the wood will now appear darker than the rest, which makes the wood appear like anything but pine.

These type of projects require careful planning. In the chest featured on the photo, the inside of the lid was burned, but not the inside of the bottom of the chest. Burning the wood with the heat gun dries out the wood, and as the chest has to hold objects with a certain amount of weight, I didn't want to weaken the weight holding part of the chest.

You can also apply paint techniques to further enhance the piece of furniture. In this case, a rubbing technique and a stencil was used, and vintage handles were added to complete the chest.