Staining and Finishing Furniture

March 25, 2010 § Leave a comment

I mention (here) that I was working on finishing furniture for our guest room.  We didn’t set out to buy unfinished furniture, but after spending a couple of Saturdays trekking around visiting furniture stores, it became very clear that we weren’t going to find exactly what we wanted going the traditional route.  Inevitably, our conversations started  ‘I like it, but …’  and ultimately we talked ourselves out of everything we looked at in regular furniture stores.  That was when we decided to hit a local unfinished furnitures store.  We were able to custom order solid alder wood bed frame, dresser and nightstand.

Finishing furniture is a time-consuming process.  First, everything is sanded down with 220 grit sandpaper.  Be sure you remove all of the dust before apply the stain.  Using a water-based requires that you apply the stain in sections and that you wipe of excess stain with a soft (lint-free) cloth.  Once the stain has dried, lightly re-sand everything  with 220 grit sandpaper to remove any rough spots.  Then, apply a double coat of poly before lightly sanding the dried poly with 400  grit sandpaper.  After applying another coat of poly and once everything is dry you lightly sand everything with 600 grit sandpaper.  Finally, apply one last coat of poly.

Sounds like a lot of work, right?  It was.  I have to admit it took me over a week to complete this project.  However, it saved us several hundred dollars (even after purchasing an orbital sander). It also allowed us to choose exactly the right color and use low-VOC products.   Here’s a look at the before and after of the dresser:

 

Guest Room Decor Ideas

March 11, 2010 § 1 Comment

The last couple of weeks I have been working on staining and finishing furniture for our guest bedroom.  The process goes something like this- stain, sand, poly, sand, poly, sand, and then poly one last time. This one of the most tedious projects that I’ve taken on as of late, but it allowed us to purchase solid wood furniture and stay within our budget.

Now that the hard work is finished, I’ve been dreaming of how we might decorate our extra room to ensure it is inviting to guests.  I’ve been playing around with a few ideas, but I have to confess something. None of ideas have been vetted by my husband, and since he lives here too, it is only fair that he get equal import. Fingers crossed that he likes one of these ideas:

Reusable Objects: Glass Jars

March 4, 2010 § 1 Comment

 

A few weeks ago, I picked up couple bouquets of flowers at the grocery store, thinking that they would be a pretty way to dress the table for a dinner party. It didn’t occur to me to think about what I would put them in until I arrived home and realized that our vases are still tucked away in moving boxes (no, I’m afraid they still haven’t been unpacked just yet).

A lucky stroke of inspiration had me rifling through our recycling bin- isn’t that a lovely picture?  I briefly considered wine bottles, before the mason jars hiding beneath them caught my eye.  I grabbed the handful of jars lurking in the bin, stuck them in a sink full of warm water.  After a little spa time, the labels just fell off the jar, no scrubbing required.  Except for the Classico Jars, those labels are well adhered by remarkably effective glue that I would love to use to keep my grocery list from  spontaneously disappearing.

Since then, I’ve put these glass jars to work .  I used one to store the leftover pickled onions that I made to accompany this Southwestern Pull Brisket recipe; I was afraid that the pickled onion smell would linger on our Tupperware.  Small jam jars are perfect for storing leftover soup because you can pop them in the microwave (sans lid, of course) to reheat.  All this I hope will justify my growing glass jar collection when my husband finally starts to inquire.

Decisions, decisions: Guest room paint

January 25, 2010 § Leave a comment

So, I can’t lay claim to being an interior designer but I try to ensure that our home looks nice.   Most of the time my husband and I make big home decor decisions together, and it usually goes like this:
  1. I do the initial gathering and vetting of options, focusing on items of appropriate quality and style.  Sometimes things slip on to the list if I love them,  even if I think the hubs will nix it. 
  2. We go through the list together narrow down based on aesthetics, as well as by price  because I suffer from the unerring ability to look at a catalog page or store displays and fall in love with the most expensive item. 
  3. We discuss the remaining options and commit.

This time around, we’re choosing the color for our guest room, and I’m supposed to make the final call.  The main selection criteria is that color should work relatively well with the other colors currently used in the house so it doesn’t feel like we’re playing ‘one of these things in not the like the other’.  I’ve narrowed down our options to two very different colors, but every time I think I’ve settled one, my mind changes.

 

Colors on a few of our walls

Color contenders for guest room.

Now, I’m wondering that other people think. Care to share your opinion in a comment?

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