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How to Create Cerused Wood or Limed Wax Finish

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I want to talk with you about a furniture finish that I discovered a few years ago and I have been dying to try it ever since. It’s called Cerusing Finish (or sometimes Limed Finish), and basically it’s a process of rubbing a contrasting color into the pores of wood to highlight the patterns of the wood grain. Although, I often see this type of finish with Oak, it works well with many types of wood including mahogany or cherry.

Cerusing vs Using Liming Wax

There are two techniques that produce similar results. The first, and easiest, is using liming wax. (This is the liming wax brand I most use). There are some great tutorials on how to use liming wax. For a low or medium traffic piece such as a side table or dressser, I prefer liming over cerusing. The process is slightly easier and you have a bit more control with layering the wax.  However, for a high traffic piece such as this dining room table, I prefer cerusing. The main reason here is because I feel high traffic furniture needs a durable top coat to fully protect it, and you can’t use wax under a polyeurethane coat. Over time with scrubbing and spills, most high traffic pieces will need to be re-waxed and wax can stain. I don’t find that most people like maintenance all that much on their furniture. I wrote an informative post about the best topcoats for furniture here.

As you can see, this was how the table came to me. It has an interesting pattern when the center leaf isn’t incorporated, and I wanted to highlight that pattern even more. So let’s see how it turned out!

How to Ceruse Wood

I have read several tutorials and experimented until this worked for me best. Although oak is usually used with cerusing, I actually much prefer other woods such as cherry or maple. Above is the table we started with. The finish was clearly coming off and scratched all over, although the scratched didn’t extend into the wood itself.

 

The first step was to strip the old finish. For this I used a regular stripper and then sanded it a bit with a 220 grit sandpaper to buff any scratches out.

Wire Brushing The Wood Grain

The key to a good cerusing technique is in the wire brush. Using a very stiff wire brush like this one and working in long strokes that go with the wood grain, you can see the pores open a tad bit. The real key is brushing in the direction of the wood grain and using good pressure. I did put some power behind it, but I wouldn’t say that I used all of my strength to do it.

Preparing the Table for Liming or Cerusing

Next, I used a very light stain for this. Because I am using a white paint for the cerusing, it will lighten the overall look of the stain a little bit after applied so keep that in mind when choosing the stain and color. I then put a thin layer of polyacylic on it to make it easier to buff the excess paint off. The extra layer of poly was to ensure that the stain did not bleed into the cerusing paint. If you are cerusing a painted piece of furniture, you can skip this step.

Ready to Ceruse the Wood Table Top

For this table, I used Fusion Mineral Champlain as the paint for cerusing (you can buy it here). I thinned it out with water, about 25%. The paint was brushed on quickly over a whole section. To keep it even, you really want to do a whole section at a time or if you don’t have leaves like this one, do the whole top. I waited about 10 minutes to start to take it off. Many tutorials I have found say to use 1000 steel wool or something like that. I don’t know if it was my impatience or that the paint had dried more, but I ended up using 220 grit sand paper and our palm sander and quickly going over the table with no pressure until I got the look I wanted.

I finished it up by spraying my favorite favorite polyeurethane coating to make it ultra durable.

Pictures don’t even do this table justice. The cerused wood is gorgeous! This table will actually be finding a new home as I plan to sell it. I haven’t sold a piece before so we shall see how this goes!

 

So tell me what you think. Is this a technique you would try?

Want to see more furniture transformations? Check these out!

 

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Comments

  1. Hi! I have a very similar table as this. Do you think using the poly before hand would make the paint harder to stick to if you are rubbing it off instead of sanding it off?

    Reply

  2. Hi Rachel,

    This is exactly the look i want, but I have a huge area to do and maybe its me, or I’m letting it dry too much but I find using 400 grit sandpaper OR 0000 steel wool I am having to work REALLY hard to get the paint off and can’t imagine doing it for the big area I have… I tried your palm sander idea too and some of the under-stain stripped off (yes applied poly layer). Then even after that I would say I’m getting WAY more lines of grain then your pictures and I really like how you really accent the waves of grain but not so much all the grain. Any more tips to share?

    Also I was using a brass wire brush instead of a steel brush like you linked. I was worried the steel would be too harsh on the surface that I have (plywood veneer layer).

    Thanks!
    Jordan

    Reply

    • I’ll add, I’m using a chalk paint over top… is that maybe a bad type to be using? Thanks! Jordan

      Reply

    • Hi Jordan! Sorry that you are having trouble. First, what kind of look you get may depend on what type of wood the table is. I have seen this technique often done with oak, which has more natural grain, although I prefer it on maple or cherry, which have tight grain lines. What grit for the random orbital sander were you using? I suggest something very fine like 220 or 320 so that it doesn’t eat through too many layers. If none of that works, adding liming wax would be a bit easier to control and you can always add it with the paint layer or instead of.

      Reply

  3. Love the table!! I’m going to try this technique on a tv stand given to me by my parents. What do you use to get such great lighting and pictures?

    Reply

  4. The table looks stunning!! I am currently trying the same technique on a yard sale find. After you poly’d, did you lightly sand or just put the paint down?

    Thanks!
    Nicole

    Reply

    • Great question! I just put the paint down. I figured the sanding afterward would take care of that and I didn’t want to go through the stain underneath.

      Reply

  5. Hi Rachael, I love what yo did! I’m going to try the cerusing on a table that has a leaf. Did you do it all at once or the leaf separate.

    Thank you so much,

    Janet

    Reply

    • When it came to putting the white cerusing part on, I did it all at once. Since I was gently sanding the white paint off, it didn’t matter if it dried. However, if you try wiping it off with a rag, then I would do one section at a time. Good luck on your project! I know it will be stunning.

      Reply

  6. Hello, I’m wondering if the poly topcoat you used had any difficulty sticking to the liming wax. Do you think I could paint the topcoat instead of spray?

    Reply

    • You can’t put a top coat over a wax. It won’t stick well, however, the liming wax can be put over a poly without a problem. Wax hardens but doesn’t bond the way that paint or polyacrylic does. Cerusing wax is a little different because some brands have paint-based liming wax, which isn’t really a wax at all. Depending on what brand you use, they will probably have excellent tutorials on how best to use it.

      Reply

  7. Your “Regular Stripper” link is dead and i’m curious and ignorant to the entire process. Would you be able to share what type of stripper you used? Liquid? Sponge?
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Thank you for letting me know that the link wasn’t working. I used this citrus one. However, you don’t necessarily need a stripper. This particular table had a rather thick coat of varnish so I thought it easier than just sanding everything down. I still had a fair amount of sanding because of all of the scratches. Stripper is also good if you are concerned about sanding through a thin layer of veneer. Hope that helps and good luck with your project!

      Reply

    • Hi Chrystie! Thank you so much. For the stain, I honestly mixed up some that I had on hand already. It was pretty close the the lightest brown I had but I thinned it out maybe 30% with mineral spirits. The directions on the stain can should tell you how you can thin it, if necessary. I find that a lot of stains are much too dark for my liking. I also recommend using an old t-shirt rather than a brush as it puts thinner, more even coats.

      Reply

  11. Gorgeous… Did you also use Champlain for the base of the table. I have this table without the center section…this is great idea. I couldn’t decide how to finish it…so its sat for several years in the sad state of neglect.
    Thanks for the inspiration.
    Mary

    Reply

      • Oh, of course. Here it is: http://amzn.to/2xtL3ji It comes in several sizes and I will mention that it has a tendency to look darker in one direction than when you look at it standing from the opposite side of the rug. Not a huge difference but I do notice it. Reminds me of vacuum marks that older carpets had sometimes, but it is just how you look at it. I have two 8×10 rugs and I oriented them so that the lighter side shows towards the room entrance (how you see it in the pictures).

    • Hi Mary! Yes, I used Champlain for the base as well. I have those projects too, just waiting for the right strike of inspiration. Actually, I have a whole bedroom suite my husband has had since college. Maybe one day I will get around to it, haha.

      Reply

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