Back to work
Jul. 6th, 2009 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rosdriseI took a week long vacation last week and given my lack of monetary funds, that meant keeping it simple and going home to visit family. I was also SUPER productive. I refinished the armoire that's been sitting in my parents garage for several months now. It's still sitting there, but it's ready to come back to my place whenever they come over (my car is too small to take it all in one trip).
But first, a video of our cat, Jack, and his love affair with my shoes.
Now on to the Armoire Project Picspam!
For those who need a refresher, this is what the armoire looked like initially:
The pictures don't do the poop brown color the most justice, because that's what it is. The entire thing was very art-deco-esque, which I really don't care for. Luckily that can be remedied for the most part.
First came the stripping, OH THE STRIPPING. I guess I should be thankful that it didn't have layers of paint on it like my coffee table did. The finish came off fairly easily in one coat for the majority of the pieces. There were just so many pieces, it took forever. Here are some pics of everything sans that awful, awful stain color:
Thank goodness for my parents giant garage. There is no way I could have done this at my place. Not a chance.
The doors are my least favorite part of the entire piece. Whoever designed it wanted to make it extra special and put these horrendous veneers on the front panels. They look like spinal cords! It's creepy!
After stripping everything I had to sand it all. Not having really sanded anything like this before I was very niave. I thought I would be in and out of there in an hour or two. Boy was I wrong. That alone was a full day project and I kept sneezing out sawdust. It was all very attractive.
Everything started to look really nice at that point, even the creepy spine doors were a little less pronounced.
Then it was time to pick a stain. I new I wanted to go dark in an effort to mask the veneer on the front a little bit. There are a lot of ugly stains out there and finding a super dark one that wasn't black was more difficult that it should have been. Is there really a need for 7 shades of green stain? REALLY? I brought home two sample bottles and tried them out on the front doors.
They look pretty much the same, right? I picked the one of the left ("Jacobean") because I convinced myself that the grain of the wood was more hidden. It really didn't matter though.
One more look at everything before it gets stained!
Staining is so much fun and a million times easier than painting. I don't know why anyone would paint wood when they can just stain it. I put one coat of stain on everything and then a second coat on all the pieces that get seen (so I skipped the inside of drawers, etc).
Next up was polyurethane. I'd never done it before because with my coffee table I used a combination stain and poly, so I was a little nervous. I think I worked it a little two much because there are places you can see brush strokes, but for the most part I think I did OK. It took three coats to get the right amount of sheen on everything.
DONE! I can't wait to see it against the green in my dining room.
I finished Atashinchi no Danshi this weekend, it was all pretty adorable. Not an outstanding series by any stretch, but definitely enjoyable. I'll probably finish Who Are You? next... especially since there was no new True Blood this week! FROWNY FACE.
But first, a video of our cat, Jack, and his love affair with my shoes.
Now on to the Armoire Project Picspam!
For those who need a refresher, this is what the armoire looked like initially:
The pictures don't do the poop brown color the most justice, because that's what it is. The entire thing was very art-deco-esque, which I really don't care for. Luckily that can be remedied for the most part.
First came the stripping, OH THE STRIPPING. I guess I should be thankful that it didn't have layers of paint on it like my coffee table did. The finish came off fairly easily in one coat for the majority of the pieces. There were just so many pieces, it took forever. Here are some pics of everything sans that awful, awful stain color:
Thank goodness for my parents giant garage. There is no way I could have done this at my place. Not a chance.
The doors are my least favorite part of the entire piece. Whoever designed it wanted to make it extra special and put these horrendous veneers on the front panels. They look like spinal cords! It's creepy!
After stripping everything I had to sand it all. Not having really sanded anything like this before I was very niave. I thought I would be in and out of there in an hour or two. Boy was I wrong. That alone was a full day project and I kept sneezing out sawdust. It was all very attractive.
Everything started to look really nice at that point, even the creepy spine doors were a little less pronounced.
Then it was time to pick a stain. I new I wanted to go dark in an effort to mask the veneer on the front a little bit. There are a lot of ugly stains out there and finding a super dark one that wasn't black was more difficult that it should have been. Is there really a need for 7 shades of green stain? REALLY? I brought home two sample bottles and tried them out on the front doors.
They look pretty much the same, right? I picked the one of the left ("Jacobean") because I convinced myself that the grain of the wood was more hidden. It really didn't matter though.
One more look at everything before it gets stained!
Staining is so much fun and a million times easier than painting. I don't know why anyone would paint wood when they can just stain it. I put one coat of stain on everything and then a second coat on all the pieces that get seen (so I skipped the inside of drawers, etc).
Next up was polyurethane. I'd never done it before because with my coffee table I used a combination stain and poly, so I was a little nervous. I think I worked it a little two much because there are places you can see brush strokes, but for the most part I think I did OK. It took three coats to get the right amount of sheen on everything.
DONE! I can't wait to see it against the green in my dining room.
I finished Atashinchi no Danshi this weekend, it was all pretty adorable. Not an outstanding series by any stretch, but definitely enjoyable. I'll probably finish Who Are You? next... especially since there was no new True Blood this week! FROWNY FACE.
