Service

Timber Finishing

Stain and varnish, built up in coats and cut back by hand between each. The craft with the least room for error, and the most reward when it is right — on joinery, cladding, doors and windows.

The two finishes

Stain or varnish

There are two ways to finish timber, and they give very different results. Which one is right depends on the timber, the setting, and the look you are after.

Stain

Penetrates the wood, leaving the grain fully open and visible — the most natural look achievable.

Varnish

Sits as a protective film over the surface. The grain still shows through, but under a tinted, glass-like coat — closer to a clear polyurethane finish.

Up close

The finish itself

At working distance, and close enough to see what the coats are doing.

A stone and render country house with varnished timber joinery throughout, seen across a clipped garden. — **Joinery, finished throughout** — when every window, door and dormer carries the same coat, the timber reads as one material rather than a set of parts.

Deep reddish-brown timber cladding running past a run of posts, in full sun. — **Cladding in full sun** — an even coat across every board is what stops an elevation looking patched. Sunlight is the least forgiving light to be judged in.

A stone entry portico with a stained tongue-and-groove ceiling and timber double doors. — **Stained lining and doors** — stain leaves the grain open, so a ceiling like this keeps its depth instead of flattening under a film.

On the building

At full size

The same two finishes, at the scale of a whole building. Most of this work is documented in full inside the project case studies.

Varnished timber french doors set into a pale stone wall, opening onto a paved terrace. — **Varnish against stone** — a tinted film over the timber, warm where the stone stays cool.

Varnished french doors in a cream rendered wall, opening onto a lawn. — **Doors in a rendered wall** — varnish holds its sheen where the wall around it stays flat.

A varnished timber window in a stone wall framed by ivy. — **Where timber meets weather** — exterior joinery is the first thing sun and rain find. The coat is what stands between them.

A varnished window unit above a clipped hedge. — **A single window unit** — the same finish schedule as the rest of the building. No exceptions for the small pieces.

The timber pavilion veranda, cladding and posts under a deep eave. — **Under the eave** — sheltered timber weathers differently to exposed timber, and the finish is specified accordingly.

The timber elevation of a modern pavilion with clerestory glazing. — **A full elevation** — the real test of a stain is whether it still reads as one continuous surface from across the lawn.