At Long Last, A Completed Door/Table

It's with GREAT pleasure that I share these photos with you. Today my husband and I brought the door/table (now just a table!) into the house and shared our first meal on it (leftover pizza - we're high class!).



It turned out better than I'd ever imagined.



It took longer than I'd originally intended, but that was really just due to my weird grad school schedule.

We can easily fit 6 people around it, and probably 8 with no problem, as well.

Here's the breakdown:

$35 Old door from Charlottesville's Habitat ReStore
$25 Safecoat Acrylacq Non-toxic Sealant
$7 Miniwax Gunstock Stain
$20 Sandpaper (you'll remember, I did the whole series.. 60 grit to 400 grit)
$10 Cheap paintbrushes for staining
$10 Staining supplies (plastic drop cloth, gloves, rags, miscellaneous)
$60 Wood for table apron/frame (yeah, wood is expensive)
$32 4 Legs
Awesome friend who helped build the frame and attach the legs - priceless

$199 Total

Could we have bought a dining room table that we love for cheaper? I'm going to say maybe, but doubtful. Real wood tables aren't cheap. You could probably also save money if you had some of the supplies already on hand (like all the brushes, stain, sealant, prep materials). And you could definitely save time if you use an electric sander.

I had hours of fun working on it. I felt like I was making something for my future family, picturing kiddies throwing food at one another and such. All in all, I feel like it was a good investment and a fun project.

"The dishes are done, man!"

Points for you if you can place the quote above!

In truth, the dishes are not done, and this door/table still needs a final coat of varnish.. BUT.. come on, it's almost done.



Yesterday instead of writing one of many papers due in the next few days, I decided to stain the new legs and frame of my table. It was such a gorgeous day, how could I not take advantage of it?



I only did one coat of stain on the legs instead of the two I used on the table top. I like that the legs are just a hint lighter; I think it gives it some subtle contrast. The legs also have closer grains, so they didn't want to pick up the stain quite as nicely as the top did. Hope you like it! Expect a true FINAL photo in the next few days!

Door/Table: A World of Awesome

Today my wood-working friend and I finally got the opportunity to get together and build a frame for my door/table project.

We went to Home Depot and bought three 9 foot pieces of lumber and an extra set of legs (just to make sure the legs matched the wood for the frame).

Again I forgot my nice camera, so it's camera phone time. But at least I didn't get sawdust all over my Nikon.

Just to remind you what we're working with..


We eyeballed the lumber with the legs to see what kind of fit we wanted to make.


My buddy unloaded a boatload of tools and exciting (and very dangerous!) saws. I made him do all the table saw work; I only touched the miter saw.


We used some scrap wood to make a demo of how we wanted to hold it all together, just to test the sturdiness (and the sturdiness was awesome).


Notice the three diagonal looking holes? We had a very awesome jig set that let us clamp and measure diagonal holes to attractively hold together the legs with the frame. It was just what we needed.


More measuring


One short side down!


Attempting to hold the long pieces straight while taking a picture.. not a good idea.


The frame is almost done!


We decided to add some triangular pieces to make it even sturdier, and also to hide screws on the underside.. in case anyone is ever sitting underneath the table...


Which turned out looking like this


DONE!


I LOVE the way we fit the legs into the frame instead of covering the tops of the legs. I think it looks fantastic. Now I just have to stain (again)!

Door/Table Sans Sunlight

I think this picture is a little more accurate - it's without that bright, overhead sunlight.

Acrylacq

It's a lovely day in Charlottesville.. meaning that I can finally apply my clear, protective top coat on the door (the can said the temperature should be above 55 degrees when applying)!



The first coat went on just before noon, second coat will go on around 4pm, and then I probably can't squeeze in a third coat until tomorrow.

The only mishap I've had so far was that there was a little bit of price tag sticker left in the bottom of my paint container.. which then gave the top coat a slight blue tinge when I poured it in? Look, at this point, I've learned to roll with the punches.. if anyone tells me they see a hint of blue, they'll also be rolling with the punches...



I dragged the door outside to work in the sun, so it's extra red in the bright light. I still can't get a great picture of the stain, though... either too much light or too little light. The late afternoon sun should work well though, so I'll try yet again!

Gunstock 231

Last night I was reading over the Miniwax Stain directions again and I noticed at the bottom of the can it said to apply a second coat within 4 to 6 hours of the first stain (it had been 5 hours). I ran outside to decide what to do. I decided that just one coat made it look somewhat worn; I went for the second coat.



It was dark outside when I was trying to finish up the second coat. I'm sure it was a pretty humorous site to see me so frazzled. The worst part of this whole stain process (for me anyway) was the step where you lightly remove excess stain with a rag. I tried not to apply any pressure, but I always seemed to wind up removing a lot in one area and not as much in another. I'm really not sure how you would apply the same amount of pressure to the whole area you're wiping. That problem + no more daylight = very frazzled me skittering around the garage.



I can't seem to get a good photo of this without the light bouncing off in some strange way. That said, it is pretty red. It looks less like Gunstock 231 to me and more like Sedona Red or Red Chestnut.

But it's okay, I've come too far not to like it! I'll be waiting at least until later this afternoon to apply the protective top coat. My friend who knows wood and I are planning a date to build an apron and slap on some legs.. just a few more weeks!

Let's Recap:


We bought a beat-up door at the Habitat ReStore


I spent a long time cleaning it and sanding off the old stain and chipped pieces to reveal beautiful wood grain underneath


I applied a prestain conditioner

Then a first coat of Miniwax Gunstock 231

Then a second coat

What's left
- protective top coat
- legs!

Stain!

My friend who knows wood came over yesterday and told me to stop being crazy and just stain the thing. So, I did!



We'll have to see when it dries, of course, but I'm wondering if I want to do a second coat. I liked the deep, rich color it had before I had to wipe the excess off. But I don't think this looks bad, and I don't want to push my luck either!



The stain needs at least 8 hours now to dry, so this is probably it until tomorrow when I can put on the protective top coat.

Almost done!

Confusion

I'm taking advantage of the beautiful weather today and working on my table/door. Remember that project? :-P



I thought I reached the end of sanding, and I put the prestain conditioner treatment on. The treatment is supposed to help the stain be more even and not splotchy.



So, then, I'm confused as to why the treatment seemed to actually make the wood splotchy where it wasn't before?



I don't understand... so now it's google time to figure this out before I put the stain on. Disappointment!

Door Project Day 4

Alright, all the bluish/grey spots are gone.. it seems like they were areas where the varnish had been sanded off but was still somewhat there. There were more of these areas then I had thought (hoped).



So this is it, folks! I have moved from sandpaper #60 to #80! Now I just need to run over it with a few more gradients (but NOTHING like before) and we're on to conditioning, staining and sealing. It shouldn't be long now!

Door Project Day 3

Two good friends came up to visit yesterday, one of whom really knows wood. He told me to stop spazzing about using a circular electric sander because I'll be working my way up the sandpaper gradients anyway, so I'll be hand-sanding everything after the initial varnish/stain removal stage is over (in other words, there won't be any circular marks in the wood if I do my job right).

That made good sense to me, so today I cranked up the electric sander and made light work of something that had previously been arm-paralyzing work.

Remember my somewhat frustrating attempts with chemical remover? I only used it on that one part. About 45 minutes to an hour of messing with chemical remover yielded okay results. About 5 minutes with the electric sander yielded this:

Before

After


Yeah, that's the same end piece.

So I used the electric sander mostly just on the ends, since most of the major sanding work is done.



All the heavy areas of varnish/stain are off the door. All that's left are some odd grayish/bluish areas, which seem to be areas where I just need to hand sand a little harder. In the next week I'll be carefully sanding these spots off so that I'm just left with fresh, blonde wood. Then I can finally start moving up the sand paper gradients and getting a beautifully smooth finish.



Sanding is definitely the most difficult and time-consuming part, but I know it's also the part that will make all the difference. If I don't do a thorough, meticulous job sanding, then no matter what stain color I use it's just not going to look good... at all! So I'm putting in some serious time now, but I know the rest will go much easier, smoother and faster.

Door Project Day 2

So I was starting to run into some road blocks with my door/table. You'll notice that there is basically a frame that runs around the perimeter of the door - it might be a different kind of wood, or maybe it was refinished more recently, but the varnish was proving much more difficult to sand off.



I decided to deploy some chemical paint remover. I didn't really want to do this for my project from the beginning because a) it seemed like things were coming along fine without it and b) chemicals are sort of scary. So after several questioning calls to my dad, I trotted over to Lowe's.

My dad suggested that I NOT use a water-based stripper, but my chemical skittishness won out, and I picked up a bottle of Mötsenböcker's Lift-Off: Paint & Varnish Remover. It's a water-based remover that is "green cross certified, low-VOC, biodegradable" and apparently "safe for the environment and the user." I wasn't sure it would do the trick, but the big letters on the front of the bottle say "Removes wood stains!" Off we go.



After letting the product sit on one edge of my door frame for about 10 minutes, I saw zero results. The hot-headed part of my brain started firing off a million thoughts like, "I knew this wouldn't work" and "Now I've ruined everything!" I looked at the back of the bottle again for some nuggets of wisdom, and I decided to reapply and give it some more time.



In about another 10 minutes I came back to find that there was still nothing peeling away - the back of the bottle seemed to imply that the paint would basically slough off on its own and I'd just have to brush it away. I decided to pick up my trusty sandpaper and see if, at least, the remover made sanding any easier; luckily, it did.

It wasn't a cakewalk, but the remover did make it a little easier for me to sand. Tomorrow I'll try the other sides, but I'll be sure to leave it on for a long, long time first.

Door Project Day 1

I had to stop sanding because a) my arms stopped working eventually and b) I ran out of daylight. All in all I think it was a good first day.



I decided to manually sand; maybe I'll regret this tomorrow when I wake up and can't move my arms.



I'm not exactly sure how far to take things, but I have a feeling I still have a very long way to go - including the perimeter, sides, top part and bottom part. The middle portions also need detail work, but I'm trying to just do a sweeping job before getting bogged down in the details. I also have several grains of sandpaper to move through, going from coarse to fine.



But for right now I'll just be happy with what I've done so far!