It’s almost ready to move into your home!

We’ve been working hard on your reclaimed wood table, and now it’s almost ready for you.  But the final step is one of the most important.

And that’s selecting the best finish for your reclaimed wood table.

It may seem like a small detail, but actually, selecting the right finish can have an enormous impact on your beautiful piece of statement furniture.

At Lighthouse Woodworks, we’ve had over fifteen years’ experience building and finishing custom furniture.   We pay close attention to every detail, and that includes the final step – applying the finish to your piece.

We've gone through almost every option available when it comes to finishing and sealing wood.  There are many options, and each has advantages and drawbacks.

Typically, when finishing wood furniture, there are two ways to go:  oils and hard-sealing coatings like varnish and lacquer.

Varnishes and lacquers do a great job of protecting the wood, although they leave a plastic-like feel.  The super-smooth finish means you can no longer feel the grain of the wood.  Especially with our reclaimed wood pieces, it’s a shame to lose the intimacy of being able to touch and feel the wood itself.

Also, there’s another disadvantage to varnish and lacquers.  They are vulnerable to scratches, and when this type of finish gets a scratch, the only way to fix it is to sand the entire table down and refinish the whole piece. And when you’re making the investment in a custom-built reclaimed table or live-edge table, you don’t want to have to worry about scratches.

On the other hand, there are oils, such as tung oil, linseed oil, or danish oil.  With an oil finish, nothing stands between you and the beautiful wood of your table.  You can feel the wood, and follow the grain with your finger.  What’s more, using an oil finish makes it very easy to fix and scratches.  If a table with an oil finish gets a scratch, it’s fairly easy to spot-sand and reapply the oil, restoring the table back to new.

The disadvantage of oils is that oils don’t seal the wood, so any spill or mark can penetrate the wood, staining or damaging it.  Again, this meant constantly touching up and spot sanding the table.

This was a problem for us.  We put our hearts and souls into every table we build, and we didn’t want to settle for sealing them in plastic, or leaving them vulnerable to damage.

Finally, we discovered a product that gives our tables the best of both finishes.  We now use a product called Rubio Monocoat for most of our reclaimed and life-edge tables.

This product is amazing!  It works like a varnish and an oil combined.

The oil molecularly bonds with the fibers in the wood, creating a bond that seals the wood totally.  No liquid can penetrate the wood, which provides protection like a varnish, but it leaves a natural look and feel to the table. You can still feel the texture of the wood, yet the wood is protected from stains.

Also, because of this bond, this finish also works like an oil, since it’s easy to fix any scratch.  We can spot sand, refill, and let the product bond again, and the table is as good as new!

Even better, this product has 55 different color options and numerous options for pre-stain!

Why are we so excited about a wood finish?  We have we spent the time to search and search for the best possible finish for our tables?

Because, when it comes to our reclaimed and live-edge wood tables, there is no detail too small for us to obsess over. 

To be honest, we love our tables, and we want nothing less than the best for them.  When your custom-built table comes to live with you, we want it to last and last, staying just as beautiful as the very first day.  Selecting just the right finish for it is just as important as any of the countless steps that went into building it.

At Lighthouse Woodworks, we take pride in our craftsmanship, from the first step to the last.  We think it shows in the quality and beauty of our tables.

Attention to details is what makes the difference between a product of exceptional quality, and the run-of-the-mill.  Come visit us, and see what we mean.

Lighthouse Woodworks. When you’re ready to bring quality, craftsmanship, and the beauty of natural wood into your home.