***Originally posted on cregarstyle on August 11, 2014***
Hey y'all! Recently I've been on a DIY, HGTV, Pinterest kick and have been itching to do something productive with my time off from school. I decided to try my hand at refinishing some furniture and I think it turned out fabulous for my first time. The best part is it was done quickly and inexpensively!
For about three years now Aaron has had this end table that some friends of his parents were kind enough to give him for free when he graduated college and was starting out on his own. What young guy with very little money doesn't like FREE?!?!? He was very fortunate that they decided to give him quite a few items as they were updating their home and had no more need for them. This table has been tucked into the corner and been the only end table in Aaron's various apartment living rooms since he came to own it. When I first moved to Texas in the summer of 2012 I begged him to let me refinish it but he wasn't so sure...after all we were both on the broke side and would not be able to replace it if it were ruined in my attempt to improve it. So we waited patiently.
Finally this summer (2014) after being married and having it now in OUR house where I have to look at it daily he decided to let me at it. I think he had faith in my abilities but I also think that since we have been updating our furniture throughout the last two years this table started to stand out like a sore thumb.
Originally I had wanted to paint the table bright yellow to tie in our pops of yellow throughout our living room, but Aaron wasn't that on board so we played it safe and decided on a dark stain that would still show some of the wood grain. As much as I love my husband, sometimes we just don't have the same vision. But I realize this new plan probably looks much better than my yellow table would have looked. You win some, you lose some, right?
I borrowed a hand sander from a friend, although you could use good old elbow grease and some sand paper, and gathered the rest of my supplies. We perused through the stains for a bit before deciding on this Minwax Polyshades Stain and Polyurethane in 1 Step. I used the Espresso color, but I believe they are now calling it "Classic Black" . It comes in a small can (8 oz) or a quart can (32 oz) which was less than double the price of the small can. Seeing that we had no clue how much we would need and figuring I could always find a use for the extra we bought the quart size. Fun Fact: I didn't use very much at all and still have more than three quarters of a can left so I really got some bang for my buck!
I also grabbed some TSP granules which is a hard core cleaner that I will need for a later project and figured my table could benefit from a good clean as well and some Odorless Mineral Spirits to clean my brush out at the end of each coat. I knew I wanted the brushed nickel look but had my heart set on a sleek modern bar. However, I my old hardware holes were only 2.5" apart and all the bars I like were on a 3" mounting system. Poo! I found a brushed nickel pull that would work but wasn't my ideal choice and moved on to check out figuring that it wasn't going to be seen very much and was purely for decoration not function. My Satin Nickel Cabinet Pull is not what I thought I would end up with but I love it! :)
First I removed my old, gross, brassy hardware before I cleaned my table with the TSP by following the instructions on the box to dilute the granules in water and wiped down my table then rinsed it with a clean rag and warm water. Next I gave my table a quick sand all over using fine grit sand paper and wiped it down with water again to get the dust off.
My father, who is Mr. Fix-It, thought I may need to strip the previous stain and finish but encouraged me to try a hidden area without stripping to see if it worked before going through the hassle of stripping the piece if it didn't need it. He's so smart! Why create extra work if I didn't need to. To my luck it looked just fine to me without stripping so I marched on. I dipped a 2" natural hair brush into my stain and following the directions brushed it on in the same direction of the grain.
I decided to do the table in stages. Stage 1 was the base and the legs. I was so thrilled with how it looked I called my husband to come look. As you can see in the picture below, I am in the garage and put down an old shower curtain liner as my "drop cloth" and boy, am I glad I did. I didn't make a huge mess but I did drip a little onto the curtain between the stain and the table. Also, be sure to do this outside or in an extremely well ventilated area. I used my garage so I was out of the hot Texas sun, but still had the fresh air.
The can said to let it dry for 6 hours, but I guess in the 105 degree heat it dried a little quicker. I flipped my table over to do the top after the legs had been drying about 3 hours. I followed the same steps for the top and left it to dry overnight.
On Sunday, after church I gave the top one more full coat, touched up some spots on the legs and attached my hardware. By the evening I was able to put it back in my home looking like this and we love it so much! Don't forget to make sure you clean your brush in the mineral spirits between uses so the polyurethane doesn't make your brush still and unusable.
I am so thrilled it turned out so well and I am excited to start on the next project! Until then...
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