A Little Furniture Refresh

Both the nightstands and the dresser in our bedroom are from Ikea in the Hemnes series. I loved both of them still, but with last year's newly dark stained floors, the black dresser was blending in a bit too much. I had considered the idea of painting the dresser, but hadn't really settled on anything concrete until I came across this pin on Pinterest. I loved the two tone look, and it felt so fresh and light. I decided I would redo the nightstands to match, also. I tackled those first since they were much smaller and easier to start with.

I took them out to the garage and used the orbital sander to lightly rough up the surface over everything but the drawer front, which I sanded down to the bare wood for staining.

Once they were dusted off, I applied two coats of oil based primer to the main body of both nightstands.

Followed by three coats of semi-gloss acrylic paint.

I applied one coat of my go-to stain, Rustoleum's Kona, to the drawer fronts. After that dried, I applied one coat of semi-gloss spar-urethane to the drawer fronts and the night stands. I applied it very lightly to the painted areas because I was afraid of yellowing. Turns out I was right to be, because there are some definite yellow areas. Rats.

Before moving on to the dresser, there was a project I wanted to complete on the wall above the dresser. I had some Ikea mirrors on the wall that I had fallen out of love with, and so I took them down.

As you can see, I had applied some of them before painting the room. They were stuck on with adhesive squares, so there was some drywall damage when I pried them off the wall.

Nothing a little spackle and paint can't fix.

My plan was to do a gallery wall around the TV, which would also be mounted on the wall. Once I got Chico's pawprints framed and hung next to the newly mounted TV, I made a very detailed drawing on my phone of how I wanted the other frames to look. #sarcasm

Then, through the magic of the Internet, and a trip to Ikea, the new frames were up and ready to be filled with photos. Which also meant it was time to paint the dresser.

The process was the same as with the nightstands: two coats of oil based primer and three coats of semi-gloss white.

I painted the larger drawer fronts in the dining room, which the cats thoroughly enjoyed.

After much discussion and deliberation, I decided on staining only the four smaller drawers. Those also got one coat of Kona. This time, however, I learned from my mistake and bought a quart of water based polyurethane, which I brushed over the entire dresser with no yellowing at all. Score.

Looking pretty good, yes? Oh, but where is the hardware? I had used wood filler to cover up the screw holes on the larger drawers to make way for the new t-bar handles I had ordered from Ebay.

Ta da!

The best part is that all the hardware for the dresser and nightstands only cost me $16. Thanks, Ebay.

I'm really pleased with the end result.

And no more blending into the floor! Woo hoo!

The Time Has Come... For Staining

After two eagerly awaited months passed letting the new deck lumber air out, Memorial Day weekend arrived, and the time was nigh for staining the deck.

One small step we had to tackle first was relocating my yucca plant.

I had hoped to be able to leave it where it was, but it was growing right up against the deck and over top of it, as you can see above, so it really needed to find a new home.

Once that was completed, we headed to Lowe's and gathered our supplies: a jug of Olympic deck cleaner, a gallon of Olympic Elite Semitransparent deck stain in Wenge, a deck stain applicator, and a cheap 3" paintbrush.

First thing was cleaning the deck. This stuff worked pretty well and was quite easy to use. We used a hand-held tank sprayer to apply it and then washed it off after the recommended time. Even though the deck was only two months old, it actually got pretty dirty in that time. The above picture is post-cleaning.

Before slapping on some stain all over the deck and deciding we hated it, I grabbed a scrap piece of deck board and applied some. I let it dry for a couple of days before making a final decision on it, which was a big thumbs up.

Then it was application time, which I sadly have action no pictures of. Here's the run down though: Our stain applicator had one edge that was meant for getting into the cracks between boards, so I would fill in two rows at a time, then go over the tops of the boards. David would follow behind me with the brush getting down into any gaps or knots that the stain pad didn't cover well enough.

 The first gallon ran out with the completion of the top surface. I went out to buy a second gallon, even though I would only need a small bit of it so that we would have extra on hand for any touch ups or reapplications down the road. I used the paintbrush to get all the sides of the deck and with that, application was complete.

We had to wait 48 hours before replacing any furniture per the stain directions.

I feel like the stain makes it look much more finished, like it's always been here.

This photo is probably the most accurate representation of the actual color. A nice medium brown, so it doesn't get too hot on bare feet.

I'm so thrilled with how this project wrapped up!