Our First Place

October 26, 2007

"New" furniture!

We got this old bureau from our neighbor. Keith will take anything home, even if it's a junker. He wanted to put it in his office for storage. Even though it's old, it makes a good storage piece to put in your basement or attic for various things. ie. tools, wrapping paper, old pictures, video tapes. So I gave in. What the heck, right?

Turns out, it was a HUGE bureau! Too big to put in his office, but would make a great tv console! Just what we needed too! I love those tv consoles from Restoration Hardware, but I can't imagine spending thousands of dollars on one.

It had a lot of water stains/damage on the top surface. It was really worn.

The front was really worn, dirty and had a huge scratch on the front of the cabinet door and dresser drawer. The picture on the left is more accurate of how worn it was. The picture on the right is actually really flattering.

Keith decided he would sand it down and give it a new coat of stain. He was sanding and vacuuming at the same time to reduce the amount of dust in the house.

Once he got started he decided to sand the whole thing.

You can see where he had to really sand the damaged areas. It was still a little discolored. Then he wiped it down with a damp rag to get rid of any excess dust.

Then Keith began staining it with the first coat. As you apply the stain, you have to do it quickly and spread it evenly so there aren't darker areas.

It looks really pretty and glossy when you apply the stain. It really smells, so do it in a well ventilated area, preferably outdoors.

Then allow to dry for at least 4 hours before applying a second coat. As you can see, when it dries, it soaks into the wood and it doesn't look as nice as when you first applied it. It just needs another coat.

Then he stained the cabinet doors and dresser drawers.

The following day be sanded it again so that you could no longer feel the grain of the wood. It almost looked laminated afterwards. Then he gave it 2 more coats.