Varnish & Water-Based Finishes
Durable clear coats for surfaces that take real wear
Where lacquer is the shop finish, varnish and water-based coatings are what go on the surfaces that get handled, scrubbed and rained on. Varnish cures to a tougher, more water-resistant film and suits doors, trim and anything exterior-facing. Water-based finishes stay far clearer over pale timber — they do not amber the way an oil-based coat does — and they smell far less, which matters in an occupied house. Which one a piece gets depends on where it lives and what it has to survive.
How We Work
Look at the Work
We come out and look at the piece itself — the species, the existing finish, how much of it has failed, and what the grain will do once it is stripped back. What the wood is tells us what the finish has to be.
Strip & Prepare
Hardware off, surfaces masked, old finish taken back properly, then sanded through the grits and dusted down. Preparation is most of the job — a finish is only ever as good as what it went onto.
Colour & Finish
Stain matched and worked into the grain evenly, then the finish built in thin coats — lacquer, varnish or water-based, whichever suits the piece — with a light cut between coats so the surface stays flat.
Cure & Rehang
The finish is left to harden before anything is handled, then hardware goes back on, doors and drawers are rehung and adjusted to sit true, and we clean the site down before we leave it.