Bentley is renowned for its opulent cabins with high-quality wood trims. But if you thought the interior finishes couldn’t get any swankier, Mulliner, Bentley’s personal commissioning division, is now offering a new open-pore Walnut trim for selected models. According to Bentley, the high-quality wood trim "celebrates the natural, authentic beauty of walnut” and is sourced from a very special tree type that combines European Walnut and American Walnut. Its ultra-thin lacquer means you’ll still be able to feel the natural grain.
The handcrafted finish completed at Bentley headquarters in Crewe, England, enhances the large pore structure to reveal the intense dark coloring of the wood. The specially grown trees are mainly planted in California, and Bentley even sends wood specialists to ensure that only the finest quality walnut veneer is selected.
The veneer is carefully cut from the textured section of the tree burl, which is only found between the outer layer of sap and the inner core. It’s then painted with just three ultra-thin layers of lacquer, together totalling only 0.1 mm in thickness. By comparison, Bentley says its High Gloss lacquer coating is 0.5 mm thick and has a glossy, smooth finish. Each layer is applied by hand and sanded between applications, ensuring the lacquer sticks to the natural grooves of the wood. Bentley says the resulting finish is wax-like and perfectly highlights the authentic, natural color and texture of the walnut.
The variation in color and grain of different cuts of open-pore Walnut also means that each veneer is also slightly different, so each interior that uses the fancy wood trim will be truly bespoke. Bentley’s open-pore Walnut trim can be specified in the Flying Spur, Bentayga and Mulsanne models, though strangely not the
new Continental GT.
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