Nearing the Refinishing Finish Line

As you know I've been tackling the job of restaining our dining set. Since I'm off for the next few days VACAAATTTIOOOONNN! and there isn't a chance of poor weather for the next while, I thought I'd get to staining these suckers.

The stain we chose has the stain and polyurethane in one: Mixwax Polyshades in Bombay Mahogany. Now, we should've realized with the keyword 'Mahogany' that the stain would have a hint of red. Hint of red is an understatement. The swatch we based our decision on was much much darker. When I opened the can I laughed cause it looked like I stole a pint of O negative from Canadian Blood Services.  Please donate blood! I thought maybe the stain was like hair dye-- the colour is scary and misleading at first, but you still get the desired outcome. Well, after a few coats, the stain is still pretty red. Since we were shooting for something more along the lines of espresso (with a hint of red), we're going to do a final coat over the red in a much darker colour. Woo!

I am new to staining. My first stain project, since woodshop in Grade 8, was a wedding gift for R and C, and that was a whole 2 weeks ago. For that project we used a gel stain. I rather enjoy this gel stain. Much easier to apply than the product we bought for the dining set! I had initially set out on the chairs with foam brushes, thinking they would allow me to get even, light coverage as the instructions on the can suggests. The foam brushes are crap. At least, the one I used. The thing fell apart before I was finished one chair. I grabbed another brush and found the coverage was too streaky and I was having a hard time controlling runaway drips. While sitting in the sun dumfounded by the runny stain, I thought back to all the times I saw my dad stain. What did he use?? Now, I'm not sure if I'm confusing memories of Dad polishing his boots/shoes and him staining wood projects, but I distinctively recall a soft rag. I went to my basket of rags and went to work, wearing gloves of course, as I didn't want a fake tan via Mixwax. A rag worked SO MUCH better than the darn brush! Yes!

I'm still not 100% on the colour, but as I said above, we'll likely sand lightly and stain over the Bombay Mahogany with a darker colour.

While I was waiting for the stain to dry on the chairs, I decided to get cracking on my second ReStore project: The Bookshelf/Entertainment Unit. This one I was more excited about as I really really like the colour I chose. Lucky for you guys, I took pictures of it's transformation:

Sanded, ready to prime!

First off, I had to sand the unit as it was a high quality piece of furniture. It is composed of mixed compounds: Real Wood, Particle Board and Veneer.  I was unsure of the finish on the wood so I wanted to get it all off before I threw on another layer of stuff. The gal at Home Hardware was most helpful and told me to use an oilbased primer on top of the sanded surface to ensure a good adhesion.

Primed and ready for action

The primer I used was Beauti-Tone Fast Dry Oil Primer in flat white.  I just rolled it on with a small, lint-free roller and let dry for two hours between coats. The helpful gal at HH suggested I tint the primer to reduce the number of coats of paint, but I declined because I wanted the option of using the remainder of the primer for other projects without concerning myself of covering the green. Once I was done with the primer I got to the good stuff: PAINTING!


Again, the paint I chose was Beauti-Tone I/E Semi Gloss in Viburnum. Oh how I love this colour! The picture below is just after one coat. As you can see, I haven't touched the legs. That is because we're going to shorten them to suit the wainscoting in the living room. Once we change the height, they'll be painted. So far I've completed two coats of paint and am really happy with the finish. I will do just one more coat, but after the legs just in case the shelf gets banged around a bit in the process.

Here she is in the house!

This last photo is the semi-finished product with two coats of paint. You can also see a portion of an unfinished chair.

I had to move everything in early last night because our cat Buttons Sh!thead decided it was time to explore all of this new furniture. After chasing him away many times he finally snuck to my freshly painted bookshelf and rubbed his face on the corner. I would typically find this act funny and endearing, but this cat is so frickin dumb. He also meows constantly-- does anyone else have this problem with cats? He's fed, his health is fine... WHY ALL THE MEOWING?! twitch twitch

After the cat rubbed the bookshelf I was pretty perturbed. But still I set to do a second coat on the chairs. Guess who sat right on the chair I was working on: Buttons. Oh for f-sakes cat! I gave up, packed up, and moved in.

Matching cat and bookshelf!

Please don't think we neglect our cat from love. He's a farm cat. He stays outside, he's dirty, he's well-fed, he's watered... he's annoying but also highly entertaining. He isn't the brightest and watching him find treats is quite amusing. Yesterday I was just not up to his feline antics.

Anywho, that's it for now. I imagine I'll post finished product photos soon! xo