In an attempt to expand from drawing, painting, and yarn crafts, I've been trying to learn more about how to refinish furniture.
We have been trying to find a side/accent table for the living room and one day, it dawned upon us that we could take the existing table that we've had for decades--one that we've walked by and ignored all this time, and refinish it. The interesting thing is that we have no idea where it came from. Did a relative make it and give it to our family? No one knows and that adds to the mystery.
It had a unique shape that we couldn't find in the stores and the legs of the table had a mid-century modern feel to it. We decided to try to give it a face-lift and fix it up with a new stain.
First, we used an orbital sander to take off the existing layer. That took a while because we're not accustomed to using power tools. Also, some of the corners required some very careful maneuvering. After we got down to the raw wood, we started to apply the stain. This was our first attempt at using stain so we were learning by trial and error. It was supposed to turn out a reddish color, but we applied too heavily and didn't wipe off enough so it got much darker than we originally expected. Of course, we also got splotches of uneven application, so in an attempt to even out the color, we kept on apply more and more stain. Well, it turned out pretty dark. Our final step was to apply layers of poly on top to add a glossy finish. We moved the table into the living room and while it is still darker than we wanted, it looks pretty good to us! We can just claim that the unevenness gives it a distressed look and adds personality!
We have been trying to find a side/accent table for the living room and one day, it dawned upon us that we could take the existing table that we've had for decades--one that we've walked by and ignored all this time, and refinish it. The interesting thing is that we have no idea where it came from. Did a relative make it and give it to our family? No one knows and that adds to the mystery.
It had a unique shape that we couldn't find in the stores and the legs of the table had a mid-century modern feel to it. We decided to try to give it a face-lift and fix it up with a new stain.
First, we used an orbital sander to take off the existing layer. That took a while because we're not accustomed to using power tools. Also, some of the corners required some very careful maneuvering. After we got down to the raw wood, we started to apply the stain. This was our first attempt at using stain so we were learning by trial and error. It was supposed to turn out a reddish color, but we applied too heavily and didn't wipe off enough so it got much darker than we originally expected. Of course, we also got splotches of uneven application, so in an attempt to even out the color, we kept on apply more and more stain. Well, it turned out pretty dark. Our final step was to apply layers of poly on top to add a glossy finish. We moved the table into the living room and while it is still darker than we wanted, it looks pretty good to us! We can just claim that the unevenness gives it a distressed look and adds personality!
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