Finishes

Four finishes, chosen for how they live.

Every Kiso component ships in one of four finishes. None of them form a plastic film; all of them can be brought back to new by the person who owns the piece, not a refinishing shop.

Natural oil — pure tung oil

Our default finish, and the one most of our work leaves the shop wearing.

  • Maple
  • Alder
  • Red Oak
  • Ash
  • White Oak
  • Cherry
  • Walnut

Screen tones, not calibrated color — the sample pack is the real reference.

Pure tung oil, hand-applied in thin coats and cured slowly. Nothing else in the can: no solvents, no driers, no varnish. It polymerizes in the top fibers of the wood rather than filming over them, so the surface you touch is still wood — warm, low-sheen, slightly grippy the way oiled hardwood should be.

It deepens color and figure: maple goes honeyed, cherry starts its darkening early, walnut turns properly chocolate. Water beads for a while and then wants wiping; rings and scuffs stay local and repair with a light scuff-sand and a fresh wipe of oil — no stripping, ever. It is food-safe once cured, which is why it's also what we put on interiors.

Care is one habit: wipe spills when you see them, and re-oil high-use surfaces once or twice a year. Ten minutes with a rag is the whole ritual.

Pale soap

The Scandinavian finish — for keeping ash and white oak as close to raw as a finished board can be.

  • Ash
  • White Oak

Screen tones, not calibrated color — the sample pack is the real reference.

Soap flakes dissolved in water and burnished into the surface, coat after thin coat. Where oil deepens and warms, soap does the opposite: it keeps pale woods pale — flat, chalky-matte, almost bare. On ash it reads nearly white; on white oak it holds the fresh-sawn straw color that tung oil would push toward amber.

It's a working finish with a long Danish history on floors and tabletops. The soap fills the top fibers with fatty residue that resists dirt and water surprisingly well, and maintenance is the gentlest of any finish we offer: wash with soapy water, let dry, done — the cleaning is the refinishing.

It wants pale, tight-grained wood to make sense, which is why we offer it on ash and white oak only. It will water-spot faster than oil and it isn't for kitchens' wettest corners — but nothing else keeps these two species looking this raw.

Linseed-oil paint

Allbäck linseed paint on paint-grade poplar — the painted option, done the slow way.

  • RAL 9010
  • RAL 1013
  • RAL 7035
  • RAL 6021
  • RAL 5024
  • RAL 3009
  • RAL 7016
  • RAL 9005

Screen tones, not calibrated color — the sample pack is the real reference. All 213 RAL Classic colors are in the configurator's color-match field.

This is not modern wall paint. Allbäck linseed-oil paint is pigment ground into boiled linseed oil, nothing else — no solvents, no plastics, no biocides. It goes on thin, cures by oxidation over days rather than hours, and dries to a soft matte sheen with visible brushwork if you look for it. It smells faintly of linseed while curing and of nothing afterward.

It behaves differently from acrylic in ways that matter over decades. It's breathable, so it doesn't trap moisture and peel in sheets; it chalks gracefully instead. And it renews rather than re-paints: when a surface goes tired, a wipe of pure linseed oil brings the color back. Chips touch up invisibly because the paint body is the same all the way through.

Painted components are always built in paint-grade poplar — a stable, fine-grained hardwood that machines beautifully and holds paint better than any show-grain species. Choosing a figured hardwood only to hide it under pigment would waste your money and the tree; the configurator makes that choice for you. The full standard color range is in the configurator, premium and specialty pigments included, and we can match a color on request.

Unfinished

Sanded, softened, and ready for whatever finish you have in mind.

  • Maple
  • Alder
  • Red Oak
  • Ash
  • White Oak
  • Cherry
  • Walnut
  • Poplar

Screen tones, not calibrated color — the sample pack is the real reference.

Every unfinished component leaves the shop sanded through the grits with edges eased — ready to finish, not ready to sand. What you do next is up to you: your own oil, your own soap, a stain we'd never talk you into, or paint.

Unfinished paint-grade poplar is the paint-it-yourself option: the same stable stock we use for our linseed-painted work, at the paint-grade price, for anyone with a color already on the shelf.

Two honest notes. Raw wood is thirsty — an unfinished surface left bare will mark from water and hands within days, so plan to finish it soon after it arrives. And because we can't stand behind coatings we didn't apply, finish-related care questions for unfinished pieces come back to whatever system you chose.