That's why. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you 1994's finest living room furnishings, fresh off the parental-hand-me-down express. These guys came to live with my family, like I said, in 1994. When I moved out after college, they came to live with me in both my grad school apartments, made the move out to the 'burbs and lived in the townhouse, and finally made the move across the street into our current family room. When the Mister and I got the new TV stand and decided to upgrade the console table, we decided these guys needed some help. The Mister suggested we just pitch them and get new ones. I balked. These tables suffered through many the night of studying, supported my feet after many the long day, and have been in my life for over 15 years. What can I say? I'm a sentimental sap. Not to mention - they've got good bones and they're still pretty sturdy. They're just, you know, ugly. (Also, how much fun would a blog post about shopping for new furniture be? Not fun at all, I say.)
So instead, out of the family room and into the garage they went.
I worked on the end table first, because it's less used and therefore less important. If I was going to screw this up, I wanted it to be on this piece and not the coffee table.
I started sanding it first, but I wasn't getting far enough for my liking. The table has this funky two-way grain happening on it, and I couldn't tell if that was the working of a varnish or the wood. So I broke out the Citrustrip...
...and just did the tabletop. After I stripped it off, there wasn't much of a difference at all. I cleaned it up with Odorless Mineral Spirits and returned to sanding. Once it was as sanded as I was going to get it..
I broke out my favorite: Minwax Gel Stain in Hickory. ::Sigh:: I love this stuff.
I did just the table legs first, giving the tabletop a little extra time to dry after the Mineral Spirits treatment...
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| Nice legs! |
Unfortunately, I did not wait long enough before I stained the top. It ended up being sticky for two days, so I had to wait awhile before I could do the second coat. Now, before you say it...you're right. I didn't put anything in there about how I wiped off the excess stain after waiting 3-5 minutes. Well, that's because I didn't. That's not how I roll. I wiped with the console table, and it didn't make a difference in the end. So now, I just leave it on there in all its hickory glory, and wait for it to dry before I touch it up. (I almost use stain more like a paint, because I really like a deep color in the wood. It's a personal choice. If you like to see more grain show through, then wipe away!) So, I encountered the sticky situation because I didn't let the Mineral Spirits completely dry out - a mistake I won't be making again!
Anywho, back to the staining. Once the tabletop was dry and I was able to put the second coat on....
I was really diggin' the way it looked. Since I had convinced myself that it was going work out in the long haul, I got to work on the coffee table. This time around, I skipped the Citrustrip step, because all it did was give me a headache with the end table. I sanded it down real good...
...and set about staining. This table was a little trickier, because it's so long. I did it in half sections, working very quickly, and then did long, table-length strokes back and forth while the stain was still wet. This way, I didn't have marks or streaks in the middle of the table.
Now, a quick note about staining:
Always stain with the grain! This is key when staining, and you must always do it. Except in rare circumstances. Well, welcome to rare circumstances. As I mentioned before, and as you can see in the pictures, these table have the weird two-direction grain happening. I hate it, and I always have. I really wanted to try and mask that if I could, and I certainly didn't want to accentuate it. So I stained against the grain on those wonky parts. I think it turned out okay, and it worked to hide that which I hate. But other than that - stain with grain, people.
Now that that's out there, back to the tables. I did a second coat on the coffee table, and then waited for them to both be good, stained and dry. I touched up the spots that needed it, and then broke out the Minwax Wipe-On Poly in Clear Gloss. I used a painters rag and wore gloves (which was something I forgot when I redid my stairs; a mistake I have never made since) and put on two coats, waiting three hours in between. Once they were done, I lightly sanded with 320 grit paper, and voila!
A shot of the entire family room before:
And after:
And some obligatory close-ups.
I'm so happy with the way they turned out; I love the way everything (except the DVD shelf, which is on its last legs) flows together in wood-finish unison. I'm even happier with the cost. Why, you ask? Well, the total cost of this project was a mere $2.95, which was what I paid for a value pack of foam brushes to use with the stain. I already owned everything else I needed. And to think the Mister wanted to ditch them and buy replacement furniture. Silly.
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