The Pabst Mansion former home of Captain Frederick Pabst, Milwaukee’s famous beer baron, located on Wisconsin Avenue is a very prestigious accolade I have in my resume of important accomplishments.

The job I performed entailed the staining and finishing of a newly installed cherry wood railing system and landing in a bedroom on the second floor. The challenge I was confronted with was to match-up the new woodwork with the look of the old woodwork. Not so easy when the woodwork is cherry and is over 100 years old. If you are familiar with cherry wood you know it darkens with age and acquires a deep rich patina. Also, the room was very dimly lit with very few windows. Understanding the lighting conditions is very critical when color matching. Different times of the day and the amount of sunshine radiating through the windows had to be taken into consideration; light can make things act like a chameleon. On-site color matching was necessary in order to achieve a good color match. The closer you get the stain color to the existing cherry wood the better for it’s hard to tweak it later. Many samples were made-up, one and then another, until a final decision was made. There is always the element of uncertainty that plays into one’s mind but you have to pull the trigger at some point. Once you commit to staining it’s almost impossible to turn back. Sometimes you have to say a little prayer. The patina is ever so tough to match for your trying to duplicate the natural aging process of time. I did add a little color to my varnish in hopes to create the illusion of depth to help mimic the cherry wood patina. My concern is how my work will age with the existing, i.e., will it age in unison or will it age disparately. Time will tell and I must accept that the aging process is out of my control.

As you probably can tell a job like this is not easy, there are a lot more variables than you might think. You have to be an artist, a chemist, and a gambler all wrapped in one. If you fail your self-esteem is crushed. If you nail-it and everything goes as planned you think you’re a god. Maybe like the feelings a field goal kicker has in a clutch, down to the wire, win or lose football game. Well, maybe not that intense.