Bespoke General Finishes Washstand

Some people don't care for oak furniture, and I get it. Oak can look really dated depending on how old it is and what color stain its wearing. Honey oak cabinets scream 1990's country to me and I can totally get on board with feeling all the "yuckies" with everyone else.

But when it comes to solid antique oak furniture, that's where I fall in love. I like old oak. Give me a super thick and heavy cut of oak with a prominent grain pattern and I'm a happy furniture girl.

Oak is solid.

Oak is sturdy.

Oak is my jam!

So it was only fitting that I scooped up this oak washstand the minute I saw it for sale at Morgantown Market!

It had a boring finish on it originally, so I stripped the finish off from the top and sanded the wood down completely.

As I stepped back and looked at the wood, I fell in love with it just the way it was. It still had character from years of use, but the boring dark brown stain was long gone. So I opted to skip a stain and sealed it with two coats of General Finishes High Performance Topcoat in Flat, which is a simply clear poly.

I paired the lovely natural top with a custom gray/green shade that I mixed up using equal parts Basil and Driftwood Milk Paint by General Finishes.

This color is probably my favorite shade that I've ever mixed up. It's a chameleon color and it picks up different tones depending on the lighting and what's around it.

To add some warmth, I glazed it with Van Dyke Brown Glaze Effects...also by General Finishes. It ties in the darker parts of the grain on the top and the lovely aged finish on the original hardware.

The Van Dyke Brown glaze adds warmth and it plays well on top of my custom color mix.

Oak wood is the BEST to glaze! The product gets caught in the grain and really shows off like a superstar.

In addition to having a lovely natural wood top and a beautiful glazed base, this piece has dowel joinery on the drawers instead of dovetails.

This is a little different than a Knapp joint, which has a scallop pattern on one half. It's still an old style of joint that screams, "I'm old and fabulous!"

This piece is currently available for purchase. I'm most likely going to bring it to Homestead Studios as soon as it stops snowing here in Pennsylvania. If you're interested, send me a message and I'll provide price and measurements!

If you want to replicate this look on your next piece, here is a shopping list. You can purchase General Finishes products from my displays at Homestead Studios and Morgantown Market.

General Finishes Bespoke Gray/Green Shopping List: