Furniture

A couple of things in my life collided during the past few weeks:

1) My affinity for pretty coordinating furniture.

2) My parent's beaten-by-who-knows-how-many-moves furniture.

3) My desire to try new things/tackle new projects.

For those who haven't guessed yet, all of this adds up to me refinishing my first piece of furniture! It will definitely not be my last piece because (for the most part) I really enjoyed the process.

Here are some before and after photos (because that is all anyone really cares about when reading about a project such as this one), and then I'll get to a few tips that I learned along the way.

These are not the greatest before shots, I realize, but you can see the big chip on the bottom left, general scratches and malaise, and the scarring left behind by some truly heinous hardware.

 Close up of the brass hardware... I think I thought it was pretty when I was a toddler. Maybe.

No more scratches, a little darker (to coordinate with my parent's other furniture), and much more contemporary hardware.

 No more chip!

Ok, so this was obviously more akin to a face lift than an extreme make-over (although much more than a couple of Botox injections, if I really need to take this metaphor any further), however, there was a bit of a learning curve to get here.

Products needed:

Citristrip (I liked this product because of the lack of fumes)

Metal Bowl

Plastic Drop Cloth

Odorless Mineral Spirits 

Plastic Scraper

Coarse Stripping Sponges

Fine and Coarse Sandpaper

Paper Towels

Paint Brush (and/or foam brush)

Stain and Polyurethane (or a combination product such as Minwax Polyshades)

Stainable Wood Filler

Putty Knife

Gloves

Mask/Eye Protection for sanding

Things I learned:

-Stripping furniture is messy: have plenty of plastic grocery bags and paper towels available.

-Odorless Mineral Spirits will clean pretty much anything if the mess gets out of hand.

-Minwax Polyshades is a finicky product, and next time I think I'll stick to separate stain and polyurethane products.

-If you must use a combination stain/polyurethane product, foam brushes produce a better result than bristle brushes.

-Hand sanding takes a lot of muscle power... become ambidextrous if at all possible (or get an electric sander... but where is the workout in that!?)

-Cooler weather is better when you are refinishing furniture in a garage

If I remember any other gems, I'll be sure to pass them along!