09/04/2026
FAUX TEAK FRIDAY - From a few feet away, you might swear this is real teak.
But take a closer look at the toe rail on this 60-foot Ritchie Howell, and you’ll see something even more impressive: Paint.
This faux teak finish was created by Ben Miller, using layers of color, grain, shading and fine brushwork to recreate the natural variation you’d find in real teak. It’s not simply painting something brown and adding a few lines. The trick is in creating the depth and irregularity of real wood—the subtle changes in tone, the grain, the knots and the way light moves across the surface.
The base colors are carefully built up before the grain is painstakingly worked in by hand. Darker and lighter tones are blended to give the finish dimension, while the grain lines are varied in direction, thickness and intensity so the finished product doesn’t look repetitive or artificial.
Which do you prefer? Real teak or faux teak? Leave your comments below.
