We have been working on the house and it was pretty much balls to the wall before the holidays, it's slowed down since then and I have some smaller scaled projects coming up so I'll be posting them and perhaps posting some of the older ones even though I didn't document them as much as I wanted to since I was in the middle of every room and packing and moving. It's a little easier now. I have a glider rocker that I am about to transform for my nephew who just graced us with his presence!
I don't anticipate that this will be 100 percent projects since I have been wanting somewhere I could express myself on some level that isn't face book. I'm trying to decide where my next path is as I look to change job tracks. I've spent 10 years doing drywall and acquiring all the amazing skills I have because of that but I have to branch off into another route. I have been told I should write, but it's been years since I have written anything I almost feel as though I have completely forgotten how. Or about what. I need something to do with my hands and creating. I don't know how to not create no matter what the price to my body. I expect to go back to school this summer/fall and I am hoping to have the rest of the major projects closer to being complete by then so I can just focus on that and smaller projects I can tackle mostly by myself. Sadly I need help hanging drywall and pipe installation so these are on hold until further notice. I decided that for my first post I would put up pictures of my last big project, I made some mistakes but I learned a lot so I'll do my best to document it so long after the fact.
The Project:
Vintage buffet/side table
$40.00 @ Thrifty Shopper
Now please forgive me, my pictures are rubbish and I know it, I was crunched on time as I wanted this done for thanksgiving and I had a week to pull it off. I forgot to take pictures until after I had already sanded the top. It was water damaged as you can see from the top and middle pictures, though it did look worse.
My first thought was just to sand the top down and match the existing color because it's lovely (not so much in these pics) and I didn't want to lose that beautiful pattern. I only sanded the top because of the water damage. I used restore a finish for the first attempt and I was pleased with the outcome, however the middle picture is what it looked like and the top was still less than stellar. As you can see.
I went online and started looking at what else I could try because I wanted to wood to glow, and be glossy. I knew I'd have to poly it eventually but I was hoping to fake it for the holiday. I decided to try linseed oil and wax because I thought it would be natural and surely this is a good time to try new things why not? Not like I'm on a time crunch or anything.
I was in a rush. Mistake number one. I like to just jump in but for something like this really research and take your time, it'll be better for your sanity trust me.
Bad news, I didn't take photos of the linseed oil debacle, but let me tell you I messed it up something awful. When I sanded originally I sanded down the left half more than the right, this led to the oil soaking deep into the wood while the right half was a thick sticky mess. Horrified I looked for a fix. Turns out if you put too thick a coat of linseed oil on you wind up with a sticky mess that never cures. I scraped off the oil and used mineral spirits to remove it then sanded it (after it dried) but the wood where it had soaked into now had black marks like the original water damage.
*Sigh
What's a girl to do?
Bleach.
Bleach totally removes black mold from wood and can restore the wood almost to new, you have to be careful it doesn't lighten the wood too much unless that's a look your going for. I wasn't. The bleach did help a lot though the wood had some deeper color it blended well, and I removed almost all of the original water damage.
After it dried I re sanded it down (for the 5th time) and I used a maple stain I had in my stash. I did two coats of poly over the whole thing and I love how it came out.
Right side is damage free and a little lighter than...
The left side which was dark from the oil since it seeped in so deep, luckily the bleach worked enough that it appears natural. And it is just a little darker than it was.
You can't even see the spot anymore, you have to really look for it. sadly the wood split a little and I had to fill it, that's not perfect but it's hardly noticeable so perhaps a future redo will be in order but it's more than fine for now.
So I bit my lip and went on a limb as I polished the hardware with brasso. I was hesitant on this because you just never know whats under the patina, and patina can be so beautiful you hate to remove something that took decades to accumulate, some people would kill me for doing that. I was afraid I made the wrong choice when I first uncovered them, however I ended up pretty pleased with the results. I am not a big gold/brass tone person but I really loved the contrast I ended up getting. I also polished these with a jewelry cloth to get the soft shine they have.
So here it is in my dining room being loved and used finally since I have bought it over a year ago and it's been sitting in storage waiting for us to buy a house. It's finally home!
I will hopefully be starting the rocker in the next week so I'll post that as I do it.
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