Mother of Procrastination

So...clearly I'm busy, because it's taken me a whole year maybe 2+ to re-finish this table that I made over  ruined. I mean I've moved almost two thousand miles across the country, unpacked and found some new fellow procrastinators to hang out with. Don't judge me.

Ok, so I'm not busy.  I just didn't want to do it and I hoped my oh so sweet hubby would say...

Hey babe, you're so busy with the house and the kids, I'll do it.

Since that only happened in my head, I had to get busy.  

Confession: The only reason I got started in the first place was because we had guests coming and I didn't want to eat picnic style on my kitchen floor. 

First thing, I placed a large vinyl tarp on the floor in the garage to protect it from my awesome painting skills. I grabbed the table top from the living room and dragged it out to the garage.  Be sure to have all your supplies ready to go on hand before you start and wear protective gear for sanding and paint stripping. 

Here's my list of supplies I used for this project:

1. Vinyl Tarp 
2. Citristrip Stripping gel
3. plastic refinishing tool/scraper
4. random orbit sander with 80 and 220 grit paper
5. a few clean cloths
6. paint brush
7. Minwax Wood Finish in English Chestnut
8. Minwax Polycrylic in Satin
9. stir sticks
10. scrap wood

I brushed a thick coat of Citristrip on the table and in thirty minutes or so it worked it's magic, and I scraped it off.  I must say at first I was skeptical, it smells like oranges so for sure it wasn't going to work, right? I tell you what, that was the easiest part of this whole process.

  

After scraping off the stripping gel, I wiped the table with a damp cloth and paint stripper after wash to get any residue that may have been left over. At this point I was debating on whether or not I actually wanted to stain the table because it looked pretty awesome bare...but I stained it. 

Before you start the staining process make sure the surface is free of any dust or debris. If there is any wipe clean with a damp cloth and let it dry.  Always test your stain on a scrap piece of wood because you don't want to have to start over if you don't like the color. 

I brushed the stain on smoothly and evenly over the entire surface.  I felt so accomplished...it looked pretty darn good after only one coat of stain. 

You have to wait 24hrs to seal it with the Polycrylic, which in the world of procrastination means do it when you feel like it. So I eventually got to it a few days later. The Poly is a little more tricky to apply, you have to make sure you apply it in thin even coats. I learned that the hard way...
I sanded with 220grit on the random orbit sander between coats to make sure it was a smooth surface and applied one last top coat.

I was quite pleased with my handy work!

Up next will be grey washing the legs and chairs!! 

Back to school, back to business

School is right around the corner and I won't have my little minis, Cailyn and Alyssa to entertain me anymore, so it'll be back to business for this momma.  That is...the business of laundry, cleaning and my ever growing to-do list.   I am super excited to share my upcoming projects with everyone.

 First, is stripping the kitchen table ( that I ruined, we'll get to that later) and re-staining or painting it! I've got some good ideas for it, so I hope I get some feed back (I will definitely need a second opinion).

So..here its is, the cringeworthy table in all its glory.