Walnut headboard

[Shawn Christ]

Just finished this queen-size headboard made from air-dried black walnut in all its glory, including knots, worm holes, and sapwood. This is the first piece of our master bedroom set which I talked my wife into allowing me to build...

For the finish I chose a light coat of boiled linseed oil (BLO), several light coats of sprayed dewaxed orange shellac, and a final coat of Johnson's paste wax rubbed out to a semi-gloss sheen. I've heard so many recommendations on this forum for this finish on walnut, and after tests for a few different finishes on scraps, I agree that it gives the best results by enhancing and deepening the grain.

As with everything I've built so far there are a few imperfections (one is quite evident in these pics), but rather than dwell on these I've learned to embrace them as learning experiences. As for the finish, I learned about the drawbacks of shellac including extensive blushing due to spraying on a humid day. Thankfully it was a relatively easy fix. I learned that unfilled pores can be exaggerated too much with heavy coats because shellac dries so quickly. I also learned you get much better results if you restrain yourself to spray light, dusting coats, rather than heavy, wet coats. At the end I'm happy with the finish but not ecstatic -- for future pieces I may play around with filling the grain to get a smoother finish that fares better with the "finger-test".

I received some great feedback from contributors here for the initial design and also the shellac problem; many thanks to all of you. If you have any questions or if you want more pics feel free to ask. All comments and feedback are welcome.

[Jim Dunn]

Love to work with Walnut. A surprise with each and every board as to looks when finished.

[gary Zimmel]

Quite the stately headboard Shawn. Nice work.

[Dave MacArthur]

Great looking headboard!

[Glenn Lewis]

looks good. i like that you left a little sapwood in. it's a good balance.

[Shawn Christ]

looks good. i like that you left a little sapwood in. it's a good balance.

Thanks, and I agree about the sapwood. I think the contrast is subtle, not too offensive, at least with the boards I have. And the oil adds a nice glow.

I don't have the ability to resaw wide stock, so I tried to match and balance the sapwood and grain in the panels as best I could with the stock I have on hand. The outer panels each have a single streak offset a similar distance toward the center. The center panel had two sapwood streaks nearly centered, but the left streak was relatively thin so unfortunately much of it disappeared when jointing the panels for glue-up.

Here is a straight-on pic to get a better view of the panels and a couple of close-ups.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

Looks good! I like projects that are more like home improvement.