So what started off as a very long project has finally reached completion!

Wahoo!

So the journey started like this.

She's really beat up, but she's got such pretty potential. I love her lines and her femininity. Unfortunately, there's no saving the veneer. It has to come off.
It was tough going at times, and then I just had to stop, because the veneer was not coming off. So a $6 iron, some perseverance, hard work and about an hour later She was completely free of damaged veneer. yay! Now how to finish her? It would take me a while to figure it out. I fixed the pitting and gouges and then sanded until she was baby-butt smooth. Then it sat. And sat. And sat some more.

Then hubs and I moved it inside, and it sat for a few days. I did figure out what paint treatment she needed on the 2nd day though, then it was just finding time to do it. :) I decided on a dry brush technique using the yellow color already in our master bedroom and antique white.
After a mishap where I painted the desk portion and forgot to paint the mirror, the whole painting process took no time at all. So here she is back up in the room!

 Please pay no mind to the mess just off camera. I still haven't gotten all the fabric back into my sewing room. You'll also notice that pictures have moved around, and maybe even see a few new ones. More on one of them below!


 The hubs wasn't so sure about the shabby finish of the piece, but after everything was put together I think he liked it. He said he did, so that's what I'm going with. I love it! I love the whole look and how it all came together! I really love all the details too, including some of the cracked veneer that I didn't remove.
 So are you wondering about one of the pictures? Do you follow Straight Stitches on facebook? If not, then you have no idea that inside one of the drawers of this vanity I found a page of scribbles and math equations from either my aunt or my mom. How cool is that? The vanity was in my grandparents' outdoor shed and lots of critters took advantage of her, but they also left some nice details. Anyways, back to the paper, I decided that the perfect way to showcase it was to frame it and put it up near the vanity. I really like the story behind it and its just a cool thing to showcase.

So there's my new vanity and I am in love.


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So if you guys follow the Straight Stitches Facebook page the you'll know that I started working on a vanity to replace the one that had been in our master bedroom. I gave the desk that I had been using as a vanity to Devlin so that he could have a computer desk in his room.

The vanity that I'm working on was in my grandparents' shed and was somewhat exposed to the elements. Luckily, the piece was veneered and it seems that the only real damage was to the veneer.

So out comes a cruddy iron ($6.50 at Walmart, baby!) and lots of water for the steamy action that commenced.

Removing the veneer with the iron was a fairly painless process, but it also didn't hurt that it was already humid outside because of the thunderstorms that were passing through the area.

I had the iron set to wool or linen with steam and it probably only required about 60 seconds of steam on a section to loosen the glue. Then came my trusty putty knife. I actually ended up leaving the iron on a section while working on a different section and then moving the iron to yet another section and the working on the section that the iron had just been resting on. I don't know of that's the correct way but it's the way that I did it and it worked for me.

So after removing all of the veneer, I stopped. I'm still stopped. Why? Because I don't know how to finish off this thing. I have pinned a few ideas which I'll share later, but the main problem is that idk renown if the top is going to be stainable. I don't even know that I want to stain it. I may just paint it and then distress it. Or I could tile it, but the problem with that is the cost associated with that. I would love to finish it all in mirrors but unless I win the lottery tonight there's no way I can justify that expense. So the poor thing sits.

Tomorrow I should at least take a sanding block to her to see exactly what I'm working with. Oh, I also found some errant notes from either my mom's or aunt's time in school. Apparently page 366 was homework. :)

So back at the end of July, I got the chance to guest post over at Creating My Way to Success and I'm going to share with you guys today the post that I offered up over there. ;)

So there tons of posts, books and articles about how to finish your furniture, and I'm sure there are probably almost as many about stripping your furniture, but that's what my post is about today. Stripping your furniture.

I'm working on a console that needs to be brought up to date. I am only going to be stripping the top, because that's the only thing I'm going to be staining. The rest of the piece will be painted, makes it slightly easier on me. :)

Its an older piece that has an oak veneer and an awful stain color.

Its been super nice here in VA the last two days, so I moved the big heavy console out into my driveway to work. No problem with ventilation here! I also vacuumed the console to remove any debris, cobwebs, etc.

Next I gathered my supplies. I like to use CitriStrip, but I ran out of it during this process and I also used - Motsenbocker's Lift Off Paint &Varnish Water-Based Stripper. You can get these products at your Home Depot or Lowe's.  I can't tell you which worked better, but the Motsenbocker's is soap and water clean-up so that's really nice.
Anyways, you're also going to need a plastic bag, paper towels, a plastic stripper tool, chip brush, stripper pad, a plastic container and gloves.


Pour some of your stripper into a plastic tub and then liberally brush onto the surface you want to strip. Its kind of hard to see but the gel is on there. For the CitriStrip, it says to leave the gel on for 30 minutes, but for the Motsenbacker's only 5 to 10 minutes.
After the proper amount of time has elapsed, you're going to bring out the plastic stripper, and scrape in the direction of the grain. It's a very goopy mess, but the results are worthwhile.
I scrape all of the stripper into a pile towards one end of the piece.
Then I bring up the plastic bag and push/scoop the goop into it. I use the paper towels to clean my scraper, because its a sticky business that likes to gum up the scraper blade of the stripper tool.
There's the first bag of goopy mess.
For curved or moulding pieces, you'll need a stripper pad, which I did not have until the 2nd coat. You know, since I ran out of stripper and this piece ended up being needed to hit twice because of how well the original finish was on, but you can see above how the gel holds to vertical and curved surfaces. Now for the CitriStrip, you will need to wipe down your piece with mineral spirits and then let dry for 24 hours. The Motsenbacker's is a wipe down with warm water.
 So here's the top after the first strip session. So much better! Don't you think?

Here's the final stripped top after sanding and being moved inside.
 So that's it! Now my top is ready for stain. You'll also notice in the last picture that the rest of the piece has been scuffed up in prep for paint.

I hope you guys enjoyed today's tutorial, and you'll be able to check out the rest of this console's make over at Straight Stitches. :)

See you guys soon!

Did you guys see my guest post over at Creating my way to Success?

You didn't!?!?!?!?!

You must go see it. Now. Here's the link - LINK!

Ok, so that console is now done. Yay!

I picked up this beaut at the Salvation Army a few months ago, and knew that she was going to replace the black console that had been in this spot since we moved in. Here's the console that was there.
She wasn't a bad console. Just low and doesn't have a lot of storage. Oh and we have a white dog. Guess what shows up super well on black furniture? Yep, you guessed it. Fur and dust. blech.

So here is what the piece looked like before. :)  I don't have great before pictures, but you get the idea. The piece is a Bassett furniture number, and its HEAVY. I had to make sure to have the thing moved inside before Steve left for Vegas. I just made it.

So now that you've seen her ugly beginnings, lets take a look at her transformation, and how I'm utilizing her oh-so-amazing drawers. :)
 LOOK! They hold the DVDs so very nicely. Not that my children put the DVDs away any better than they did with the baskets, but still they're completely hidden when they are in the drawer!


 I used two different knobs on this piece, which is a first for me. The nickel knobs are from Target and the pretty ceramic knobs are from Hobby Lobby (from my trip to Nashville in June) :) I decided to paint the original backplates a nickel color to match the Target knobs, but to also make the ceramic knobs stand out.



The top is stained with one coat of Minwax Jacobean stain and I protected the whole piece with a coat of wax. The paint color is Metro Mist by Valspar and I primed the body of the piece with tinted Kilz oil-based primer. Oh then I did a light glazing with Valspar Asphaltum glaze. Love the result! Especially against the orange of the family room.


So what do you guys think? Did I do a good job? I love the character that this piece has, not to mention all the storage.

Oh do you want to see how I hooked this baby up without Steve's help?

Yep. I took pictures of how the DVD thing and the DVR cables were aligned. They helped a lot because I hooked it up right the first time! Yay me!

Stephen was quite happy with the change when he got home. The best part? Harrison can't reach the boxes anymore. Oh Yea!

See you guys tomorrow!


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