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!

Sanding

Today I've started the long, hard process of sanding my door (soon to be table). Actually it's coming along a lot better than I feared; the door is distressed enough that the stain/paint is coming right off.

Painting Bookshelves

A few months ago my husband and I realized that we were once again out of room for books. We thought about buying a new bookshelf, but so many of them are too skinny, with too few shelves and all the wrong color. I had a bookshelf still waiting for me at my parents' house, but it needed to be scraped of my preteen doodles, primed and painted.



Yeah... you see what I mean?



The scraping and sanding took awhile, and I probably put more into it than I really needed to. But at the end it looked crisp white and lovely! I was almost sad to paint it again.



I chose a faux finish, sandstone textured paint. I wanted something that wouldn't clash with the browns in the room, but that didn't necessarily match perfectly either. I was slightly worried about the texture making it a little more difficult to slide out books, but since the books pretty much stay in the same place I figured we'd be okay.



I really like how it turned out, and once again we're full! I don't think I'd use the textured paint again, but I think it works well for this one piece of furniture. The sandstone paint needs to be applied with a roller to get the texture right, which makes it especially difficult to sneak into crevices and corners. Also, once you use a textured paint that's it - there's no painting over it or removing it!

TV Stand

Old and Busted



New Hotness

Incoming

Potentially good news for Biscuit - our vet consulted with a dog ophthalmologist who thinks it's one of two problems.. the first should not get worse and the second is treatable. I made an appointment to meet with her on Friday, so hopefully I'll be driving up North for good news?

Also, we ordered a new tv stand/media center that arrived early this week. I thought putting it together would be the hard part, but I hadn't thought in advance about what was hiding behind the old tv stand.... wire hell

Why Reclaimed Wood Is Awesome

Reclaimed lumber is used wood that has been taken for re-use. Often this is wood from long-standing idle buildings, and it's sometimes refinished for new purposes. Most reclaimed lumber comes from timbers and decking rescued from old barns, factories and warehouses and some companies have been known to source wood from less traditional structures such as boxcars, coal mines, and wine barrels. Reclaimed or antique lumber is used primarily for decoration and home building and is often used for siding, architectural details, cabinetry, furniture and flooring.

Case in point, this lovely table from World Market -

Inspired by the unadorned, clean lines and sturdy build found in barnwood furnishings in the farm regions of France, our Bordeaux Dining Table is a study in simple authenticity. Crafted of solid birch wood with an acacia veneer and distressed specifically to create the charm of reclaimed materials, our Bordeaux Dining Table is beautiful, robust and elegantly unfussy. Easily extends from 60" to 96" long to accommodate the entire family.

Hmm... "to create the charm of reclaimed materials"
Is it lying?