ey ya'll!
So. It's been a year.... and I've been racking my brain for longer than you know about how to explain my prolonged absence. And this is the conclusion I came to: I won't. I just won't. Truth is I just lost my will power to put in words every happening of every day. Which I'm not so sure is so compelling to read about in the first place.


I have however, been doing some pretty interesting stuff just recently though. For one thing, we moved to a new apartment! It's not downtown like we were expecting (next year, for sure though ;) ) just two buildings over, instead. So my husband and I get home from work one weekday afternoon in July, and as we're pulling in to our parking spot we see this beautiful beast of a table sitting right outside the dumpster. So naturally, an alarm goes off in my brain screaming, "PINTEREST PROJECT!!!!" So we lug it upstairs - and by "we" I really mean Scott and two of our male neighbors, this thing is real wood y'all - and by the end of the night I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.




I'm not really a fan of the antique oak look, but I love the look of the real wood, so I decided the plan of action was to strip it down and restain it. The problem was, I have not once restained anything in my life. But I mean that is what Pinterest is for, right?

So after doing some extensive research here were the steps I came to:

1. Use an orbital power sander to strip all finish off the table
2. Use a wood conditioner on the raw wood
3. Evenly paint on the stain, going with the grain of the wood
4. Coat the stained table with polyurethane or a furniture wax
5. Done!

My first thoughts were, not too bad, I could probably get that done in a weekend right?
WRONG. I mean, I guess you probably could, but 1. I bought all the stuff on like a Tuesday, so I was READY to get this done! 2. Sanding is really the longest part. Especially if you plan to do any of it by hand. It's a beating.



With all my gear in hand, I got down to business with the power sander I borrowed from my dad.
Other items included (and really, I recommend getting all of these things, I used every bit of my purchase):

A power sander (it doesn't have to be orbital, but trust me you don't want to do it by hand)
Protective eyeglasses
Face masks
Latex gloves
Disposable dropcloth 9 x 11'
Fine grit sandpaper to fit your sander
A sanding block
Assorted sponge brushes
Minwax wood conditioner
Minwax Polyshades in your choice of color
Soft cloths (or a clean cut up old t shirt)
Steel wool in assorted grits
 




Two hours later. I had the leaf done. THE LEAF. Even so, I was really impressed with the progress already. The finish on this table seemed really thin. And I'm not sure if it was because I was using a fine grit sandpaper, but I had no splitting from the wood, and it was super smooth to the touch after sanding.

(The top is with the original finish, the bottom is after sanding with a fine grit sandpaper on the power sander.)

(This is what the table looked like after all of the finish had been removed)

While sanding if you run in to scratches just take a little time and lightly sand in small circles over the scratch. Just think of it as buffing a smudge off a dirty mirror. If you're using the power sander it should even out pretty easily.

After clearing the table top I reassembled the table inside on top of my dropcloth. I stared at those claw feet for a long time thinking about how to go about sanding them. Power sander? By hand? Do I really need to sand at all? Here's the slacker's answer: no. You don't have to sand the bottom of the table. Of course it would make for the best result, but I am a product of Generation Y and I wanted my table NOW. So I broke out the wood conditioner and got to work.


This is the conditioner I used. After talking with the employee at Ace Hardware I was convinced that this was a pretty crucial step in the restaining process. While sanding, and especially power sanding you may have had a heavier hand in more areas that others. Or, you may have done what I did, and sanded one claw foot with the power sander only to find out that it definitely wasn't going to work out. And then you're left with a bunch of sanded splotches. After applying the pre-stain conditioner with a sponge brush I could barely even tell I went a little to sander-happy on the right claw foot. However, a word of warning when using the pre-stain: you have to apply your stain within two hours of applying the conditioner. So make sure you're ready to roll when you put it on! Also, the 1/2 pint was more than enough for my 6-foot table. Don't let it's tiny-ness deceive you.








Another fun fact I learned from the helpful Ace Hardware lady is that you can buy this product which is basically a two-in-one for staining and finishing. (Nothing beats skipping a step!) Ironically I ended up going with an oak finish, but it came out exactly the color I was hoping for. Just a tad darker.

For staining I also used a sponge brush, although it's recommended that you use a natural bristle brush. The key here is to paint in the same direction as the wood grain. Any straying marks CAN AND WILL show up after it dries.

Also, I learned the hard way that wood stain is not the same as paint as in you cannot blob on a big scoop and push it around to even it out. You have to dip the sponge brush in the stain, start at one end of the table, and draw your stroke out until you run out of stain, then repeat. Again do this with the grain, and do not immediately worry if it doesn't look totally even the first time around. If you try to go over a streak you did a few seconds before it will have already began to dry and you'll get a super dark streak. Which happened on the left side of the top of my table because I got impatient.

If you do make a fatal mistake staining, run as fast as you can and grab your steel wool, any grit, and scratch it down. You will have to throw it away afterwards, but this saved me while I was doing my second coat and discovered that it just wasn't going to work for me.

Like I mentioned earlier, you do not have to sand the bottom of the table if you're going darker with your stain. The claw feet were just way to much for me to handle, not to mention the little ladder thing going on between the posts. It just WASN'T going to happen. So I took a chance and just covered the legs in the stain. It didn't use as much precision here. 1. Because no one can see that closely under the table 2. Because I was really feeling the fumes and just wanted to be done with it.

All in all I'm pretty satisfied with the end results.


 BEFORE:




AFTER:



Now it's your turn! You can do it! Just go with your gut!
Happy staining! I'd love to see pictures of your project!
I'm glad to be back! LH