Techniques for coating articles to have the appearance of wood, leather or other naturally occurring materials

Method of coating a substrate, comprising:

• applying surfactant and color solutions to a surface of a substrate having a color;
• adjusting the amount of surfactant and color solutions on the surface;
• and
• causing the surfactant and color solutions to permeate the surface by moving a saturator implement along the surface of the substrate at sufficient speed and pressure to adequately saturate and synthesize the surfactant solution, the color solution, the substrate color, and the surface texture to generate a desired at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of grain, hue, tone, and texture on the surface of the substrate.

A method for altering the appearance of an article formed of a first material to have an altered appearance of at least one other second material, comprising:

• applying a surfactant solution on a surface of an article, said surface having a surface texture;
• applying at least one color solution on the surface;
• and
• saturating the surfactant solution and color solution to achieve a desired concentration throughout the surface texture.

Apparatus for making a plastic synthetic wood article having a desired aesthetic appearance comprising:

• means for placing predetermined grooves on a surface of a plastic part, the grooves defining a surface texture, the plastic part having a selected substrate color;
• means for applying a sufficient amount of a surfactant solution on the surface texture, the grooves having a greater concentration of surfactant solution;
• means for applying a sufficient amount of a color solution on the surface texture, the grooves having a greater concentration of a mixture of the surfactant solution and the color solution;
• and
• means for saturating the surfactant solution, color solution, and substrate color to achieve a desired concentration throughout the surface texture and obtaining desires grain, hue or tone, and texture.