The Coffee Table Project

Before: Pine and Unfinished
It's amazing what a little stain can do on a cheap Ikea table.

But first, the background: Right around Christmas, Mom took matters in her own hands and bought us a coffee table from consignment shop -- mostly because she was tired of us not having one. We'd been stymied by the choices, the height and price. (See here)

We like the table (really, we do, Mom) but it's too short, the wrong wood grain and not the right size.

Finished Table
So we found this table at Ikea and I felt pretty confident I could match the color of our entertainment unit.

Here's what I learned on this staining project:

  • The two-in-one stain-and-poly is awesome. I was glad not to do have to do the coats of poly. 
  • I tried using the recommended pre-stain again -- I really don't see the point. The wood just feels greasy.  
  • Don't be so conservative with the stain. The first two coats were too thin. By the third, I was slathering the stain on with a rag and it finally got the rich color I was looking for.
  • The fumes WILL get to you, so do it somewhere with good ventilation and set up a fan.  

I'm just glad to have this one complete. There's still so many more projects on my Summer To Do list.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The $80 Kitchen Pantry Update

Image
It took two days and about $80 in supplies, and now our kitchen pantry is REBORN! Here's a quick review of the project in pictures, starting with the BEFORE pictures: My main issue with the wire shelves were bottles or anything "thin" would tip over. And with my commitment to bulk, I wanted to store glass containers in here but knew they wouldn't be "safe." I foresaw broken glass at some point. Plus, it's a great space, so I knew I could add more storage space if I was strategic. Last, wire shelves are ugly. So then I demo'd the pantry and painted the walls (which was just primer) with leftover paint from the rest of the house. It's called Polar Bear. I paid an electrician to install an outlet at "counter height" in the pantry, so I could move the dumb microwave off the counter. (The electrician did a slew of other small jobs around the house, not just this outlet, including a motion-activated light in this pantry. Tres Fancy
Keep reading »

Family Calendar Improvement

Image
 Made a quick improvement at the start of the school year that I'm pretty excited about.  And yes, I'm probably the only one excited about it, but here goes ...  Here's our "command central" in our kitchen. This is a good landing spot, and a central place to all look at the family calendar ... it's that huge wipe board in the middle of the photo. All our activities are supposed to be written on here and our electronic family calendar on Google.  (Brief aside: my family is the WORST at writing their plans down in either calendar and Dave still doesn't share his events on our Google Shared Family Calendar consistently, which makes me nuts. And they all ask me "what are we doing today?" instead of looking at the calendar, usually directly behind me. But, that's another post.) I went to so much trouble putting this little area together and that huge calendar with wobbly writing was really killing the sophisticated look of that space. PLUS, we don
Keep reading »

Basement Shiplap Project

Image
The guys left me all the unused shiplap from the bathroom and I've been trying to think about where to use it. I had so many ideas but not a lot of shiplap, so I eventually settled on this corner of our basement. It's where the exercise mats and treadmill live, right behind the sofa. And also where the Marvel-themed bathroom with shiplap is located. So it made sense. It took much of a rainy Sunday to cut and nail up the new boards ...    I even had enough to do on the "backsplash" of our little kitchenette in the basement I've been slowly building out.  Next up will be to patch all the nail holes and calk around the edges for a clean look. And then the best part ... picking out paint color. Since this is a "free" project, I'm hoping I can find a color in my paint cabinet.  I'll keep you posted. 
Keep reading »