Can You Lighten Rattan?

Question--

If i have a dark brown rattan pretzel chair and I want to lighten it to match my honey blond one is this at all possible?

Thanks for the input if anyone has any!

How much work are you willing to put into it?

Flip it over and look at the end of the canes on the feet. That will tell you the 'natural' color of the cane. If you like what you see, your gonna have to sand the hell out of the whole thing and sand it pretty aggressively to get below the current color/finish.

If'n your willing, it is possible.

do you anyone who can sand blast?
this guy is going to have to know what he is doing and be very careful,
making sure not to go beyond the first layer of "skin" and get into the fibers of the vine.and still it will not be an exact match.
I would just lightly sand and seal it and play up the difference,if it's a club chair ,it's ok to stand out alittle.

lol

Thanks for your input :)

I didnt even think about sanding putting stress on the rattan itself.

I think I may just scrap the whole idea mainly because I am not a fan of manual labor!

On 2010-02-04 12:24, leleliz wrote:
Question--

If i have a dark brown rattan pretzel chair and I want to lighten it to match my honey blond one is this at all possible?

Thanks for the input if anyone has any!

I'm pretty sure you can light it with a match....oh wait, read that wrong.

I had this same issue and found this thread very helpful: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=4259&forum=7

I used BK's "citrustrip" method (in that thread) which worked very well. Not all the dark stain came off, but I'd say 80-90% did. The remaining dark spots made my chair look a little more vintage.

I haven't tried, but I've read many posts recommending not to sand rattan.

Trad'r Bill