I am an person...please help

[Dan_Br]

I attached a picture of a desk I built in curly cherry.  As you can just see I have desk lamp on the top of the desk and it has been there forever.

Now for the part where I am an person.

Just moved the lamp and realized that the desk (cherry) has darkened beautifully, but not under the lamp. I have a perfect round of lighter color top on the desk.

I even commented to my wife on how beautifully the cherry was darkening and never gave the lamp a second thought


Short of keeping the lamp there forever, what can be done?

Should I cover the rest of the top, except for the lighter area and let it darken slowly? Will it??

Can I use an artificial light to speed up the darkening of that spot? ( cover the rest of the top while doing so)?

I probably do not want to try to blend in the area, as I have no experience in that

Finish is shellac.

Thanks

[fredhargis]

1) Nice desk!
2) You aren't an person (at least not because of this)!
3) Personally, I would just wait. It may take awhile but it will even out. Any attempts to fix it may make things worse except the masking thing.
4) Even if you had given it a thought, you probablt still would have forgot to shift the lamp on occasion (VOE).

[jteneyck]

I don't think the area under the lamp will ever darken the same amount as the rest, no matter what you do, but it will get closer and closer as time passes. I would just leave it alone and let Mother nature take its course. A year or two from now I'll bet it looks pretty good, and in 10 years you'll hardly see it.

John

[Dan_Br]

thanks, I might try moving it over in front of an east facing window for a while and see if that helps.
Back to the window so only the top is getting the sun

dan

[Snipe Hunter]

Wow Dan, nice work.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

Nice work indeed. I wish more projects like this were still being posted in the woodworking section.

A similar issue we had in our old home was the lighter area we had where our entry door rug laid after a year or so on our Brazilian cherry floors. It didn't get much sunlight at all but there was still a lighter rectangle. We simply went rug free there for a year and it had evened out nicely.

I am curious if you were to move it in front of a window if it would speed up the process...

[Dan_Br]

Nice work indeed.  I wish more projects like this were still being posted in the woodworking section.  

A similar issue we had in our old home was the lighter area we had where our entry door rug laid after a year or so on our Brazilian cherry floors.  It didn't get much sunlight at all but there was still a lighter rectangle.  We simply went rug free there for a year and it had evened out nicely.  

I am curious if you were to move it in front of a window if it would speed up the process...

Just moved it today, hopefully it will even up quickly
dan

[Bob10]

Not a smart butt response even though I know it will appear to be.   If the desk is not a show piece in the house couldn't you just make a cover with the circle exposed to day light to speed up the evening up process

[fredhargis]

I think that was one of Dan's original thoughts.

[Bob10]

skipped right over that