Color/species question - state of the union

[lakkdainen]

Don't worry, this has nothing to do with politics.

What species of wood and/or dye color combo would produce the color of the woodwook in the room where the USA president is giving the state of the union? I love that deep red. It's actually the exact color I want to make the cabinets which I'm going to build someday soon for my basement bar.

[Daryl]

That wood has had a lot of BS rubbed into it.

[mschrank]

Yup, it's common knowledge that if you rub a lot of BS into wood and leave it in a room with a lot of hot air, it will turn that beautiful deep red.

[LCHIEN]

The state of the union address is delivered in the US. House of Representatives chambers in the Capitol building in Washington DC. where any joint sessions of congress are held (because the house chambers are bigger than the senate chambers, something like 236 members vs. 100 members.) I think the S of U address is the only joint meeting...?

anyway, I looked up wood, panelling, architectural, and facts on the house chambers, US capitol building etc. and could not find a site describing what wood is used.

Here's a pic of the room:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:S..._the_Union.jpg

I'm sure its an American native sepcies, though.

[radhak]

Dunno about that exact room, but this here page tells us about Capitol in Austin, and says the wood used was "Texas pine, as well as cherry, oak, cedar, walnut and mahogany". So we could expect similarly for the US Capitol.

I watched the S-of-U today, and felt that wood was mahagony or cherry. Can't comment on the finish though, or color of the stain.

[Black wallnut]

Red Oak Minwax on pine pretreated with minwax pre-stain conditioner.



Same stain, no pre-stain conditioner on red oak.

[cabinetman]

Didn't see much red into the color scheme of the finish. Looks like a cross between a Mahogany, and Walnut. Like a typicdal "judges chamber". Pigmented oil base stains work well to get a uniformity of color, and also some alcohol based dyes.
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