Vintage Woods History
Nick Swanepoel, the creator of Vintage Woods has been in the painting business with his family for four generations. He created his own company 18 years ago in Colorado's Vail Valley. The idea of Vintage Woods grew out of his passion for creating wood finishes that have a sense of history to them. Vintage Woods originated from different techniques and procedures passed down from generation to generation. In time past, the colors available for stain were very limited. In today's world, Nick believes that wood seems to be manipulated in so many ways that it loses its natural characteristics.
“My idea for Vintage Woods came from enhancing the natural characteristics of wood to give it a sense of history. The beauty of wood is lost and with our techniques, we have put the beauty back into the wood to make it look like it supposed to – natural. Clients want the aged look, and that’s a patina you just can’t get with stains because they don’t penetrate deeply into the wood,” says Nick.
Through trial and error, he came up with an all-natural process that works
with a wood’s natural tanins creating that always-been-there look.
“It took about three years to come up with this process which, basically,
puts the wood through several different ‘baths’ in which it gets washed with
different natural products that enhance the natural characteristics of the
wood and discolor the wood in a the way nature would have done over a long
period of time,” says Nick.
Management Team
Nick Swanepoel: President
Kobus Swanepoel: Director of Operations
Marcy Eisenhauer: Marketing Manager
Leigh Harris: Accounting Manager