Friday, March 7, 2014

Trundle Bed Refiinishing

We found a trundle bed at a garage sale. While functional, the original finish was hideous. I'm pretty sure it was an off-white yellow, but my wife is certain it contained a hint of pink that "doesn't exist on any color palette."
 

My first thought was to use paint stripper on every surface. This kind of worked, but was slow and arduous and left behind a sticky residue that I still needed to sand off.


In the end, I used the quarter sander again to remove the paint. It was also slow, but did a good, clean job. It was made easier by pulling all the pieces apart, even beyond the finishing nails holding it together.


After everything was sanded and reassembled, I stained it and added a coat of polyurethane. This was much easier on the bed than on the kitchen table. The softer wood on the bed took the stain easily and the bed was much more forgiving of little mistakes.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Kitchen Table Refinishing

The kitchen table was beautiful when we got it, but almost a decade later it was showing some wear.


Not only had some parts chipped off, but some permanent finish discoloration occurred when some heated bottles were placed on it without enough insulation.


The first step was to sand everything down. I used this hand sander, but if I had it to do again I might have checked into getting a belt sander with a low grit. This took quite a while.



The edges were marred as well, so I lightly sanded them. Once everything is done, the slight difference in shape won't be noticeable.


The stain goes on really dark, enough to be a little worried. But when the excess is wiped off a few minutes later, the hardwood has some great color to it.




At this point, it's time for a finish. I used polyurethane in several light, diluted coats. This was a learning experience the first time around as I actually messed up badly and had to start completely over, re-sanding everything from scratch. Fortunately, the hardwood veneer was barely thick enough to withstand a second sanding. After the polyurethane, the table has a beautiful shine to it.



Back in the kitchen, good as new!