Refinishing the Cradle - in process

When our Munchie was born, her great grandfather made her a solid wood cradle. Actually, it was made a few years before she was born. The Hubs' {then} wife had seen one he'd made for another family member and asked for one, but they never actually used it for the baby. Since then, the Hubs has been storing it and moving it and otherwise trying to decide what to do with it. It's one of those things that is special, but not always easily maneuvered. When we found out The Boy was coming, it made it easy for me to decide what to do. Lets use it!

We got it out of hiding, rearranged furniture, and found it a home. One glorious day he asked me "so do you want to refinish it or paint it or something?"

My heart jumped. Not only did I have permission to refinish it, it was HIS idea and he was open to anything at all that I wanted to do; even if that meant painting pink hearts all over it. Not that I would ever, ever paint pink hearts all over anything. {Ick}

I posted this pic to Instagram and polled my friends. The overwhelming consensus was stain, not paint. That sort of scared me, since I'm not exactly very familiar with stain, but I knew that if the option was available it would not stay this golden oak color forever.

I lugged one part of the stand to the local Woodcraft store and asked for suggestions, got the go-ahead from my doctor, and went to work. They recommended the products and let me double check them against the food safety data sheets - you know - since there is no guarantee it will not get chewed on.

The Hubs and Squirt left town to visit Munchie for her birthday, and I got to work. After a light sanding with my new bff {the palm sander} and wiping it down for dust, it was time to get to some serious business.

Yes, I wore protection. No one wants to breathe particulates or smell grossness all night long, especially while pregnant.

The nice folks at Woodcraft recommended I use a sanding sealer. It went on smooth and easy. Honestly, if I had done nothing else I was so impressed with the shellac they recommended that the golden oak almost looked good enough for me to leave just like that.

I didn't actually know the piece had been "signed" until I flipped it over and did a coat of shellac on the bottom. Seriously, this is pretty much the coolest thing ever. I think it has "family heirloom" written all over it. In that moment I was really glad to be refinishing the piece to something we love enough to keep forever.

I'd read about a dozen blog posts about gel stains, and everyone suggested using men's socks. Then I stumbled on another site which said to use smooth knit material. I didn't really feel like spending any more money, so I grabbed an old t-shirt and chopped it to bits. It's one we got free at a university basketball game that I was previously using as an art smock for the kids, so it was definitely disposable in my eyes. And free. I always love free.

It's true, what they say. Gel stain really does look like chocolate pudding. I went to the store with the intent of getting the Java color people rave about so much, but half our "affordable" furniture is that Ikea espresso fake stuff and I thought that Java would make the cradle look, I don't know, less real alongside everything else. After a long while debating and texting photos of the stain samples I chose to go with the Georgian Cherry.

This stuff seriously does go a long way. Like, a long way. I had read a few posts where people wiped it on thick then wiped off the excess and said it was all good. That was NOT my experience. I found that light, even coats were the way to go. I had visible streaks after the first coat since I let it sit for a minute before trying to wipe some away and it took a good four more coats to even out the finish fairly well. If I were to do it again, I'd rather do the first coat very thin and very even, even if it meant I had to add an extra coat or two to get the color intensity I wanted.

All the other bloggers out there are right. The first coat looks atrocious. I almost cried thinking I'd ruined the Hubs special piece but decided not to judge until it was all done.

This is where I had not thought things through very well. Most people wear plastic gloves under the mens socks they use to rub on the stain. This is a very good idea. Since I didn't, I had to find a way to clean myself up. I used regular canola oil from my kitchen to dissolve the stain and clean my hands.

Ha! Like how pink my hands are from all the scrubbing? My fingers and nails actually looked better after multiple coats because I got better at keeping it off my skin and was more efficient using the oil to get the stain off.

I wanted to cry a little bit with every coat. I just had a vision in my mind that did not match what I saw before me.

Then suddenly it started to improve. After 5 coats on all sides of the cradle I did the same thing to the stand {in the background, still golden oak here}.

Then I went for the pieces that keep it all together.

I let the whole thing sit for a week and today jumped in with the polyurethane coating. It's almost done and I'm so excited to share the finished product. That will take a few days I fear, but rest assured, it is coming and {I think} it is glorious. My life is becomming eat, sleep, and craft for baby. I could get used to this.

Naval Striped Dresser Redo

I'm not necessarily a trendy person. Never have been. I'm too cheap, too concerned about comfort and how long things will be useful, and frankly just too detached from what the rest of the world is up to. I don't watch much television and haven't since my daughter was born. Seriously, once kids enter the picture who has much time for that??? I don't read fashion magazines and I spend very little time shopping. Which means that until Pinterest I had no idea what the fashionable people in the world were up to.

Except of course when my awesomely stylish friend Nichole would look amazing (which was every. single. day.). Then I'd see myself in the mirror and cry a little on the inside at my..... basic-ness. The thing about it is that I looked good - just, plain. In the sense that I pretty much always wore the same kind of basic pieces. I bet that any picture that could be found from my teenage years would see me wearing something almost identical to what is in my closet right today. 

Now, however, I am changing somewhat. Part of that I owe to the coming seasons apparent emphasis on stripes, which I happen to love. 

Perhaps it's the Navy brat in me, or the fact that I had this awesome red/white/blue sailor jumpsuit when I was a kid that I would have worn every single day if mom would have let me, but I LOVE STRIPES! And I'm seriously loving that they are "back." So when it came time to spiffy up this little bedside dresser for my girls' room, I turned to stripes. 

There really is nothing too out of the ordinary about the process here - just your basic sanding and repainting. The dresser was something the Hubs brought with him from his previous life. Someone had already painted it (either the ex-wife or the girl that almost took my spot before I came along) and I'm assuming replaced the hardware. Which meant I had the great advantage of not starting from scratch. 

First I sanded the surface of the existing paint. It was chipped in places and I wanted to get an even coat when I painted over it so this was necessary. I tell you what, this is the first time I've been grateful to have crappy industrial carpet with no padding in our apartment. I sanded right in the living room and it all vacuumed up with no problem. 

After wiping the sanded "crumbs" off with at damp cloth, I painted over the whole surface with two coats of white paint. I let this cure for a day or two and then it was time to mark the placement of the stripes. This was actually crazy easy. I started with the drawers. The drawer front has a curved/routed edge that is perfectly straight. I simply lined the edge of the painters tape up with the edge of the drawer and had perfectly even striped marked off. 

From there, I put the drawer back into the dresser and measured where the stripes met the side of the dresser. Using one of Squirt's plastic school rulers, I measured from the top of the dresser to make sure the tape remained level as I continued the stripes around the side.

Few thing ruin a project like this as quickly as paint bleed through. With the stripes all marked off, I took some of the white paint and brushed the edge of the tape. Any bleed through would then match the white and the black paint would be left with a clean edge. The black stripes took three coats of paint to have even coverage.

When I started peeling the tape, I was seriously scared. The idea of re-sanding and re-painted did not appeal to me and I was terrified that I'd goofed on measuring somewhere and would be left with a crooked stripe that would make me as crazy as Monk. Fortunately, that was not the case and I did a giddy little happy dance to see it all coming together!

Look how beautifully the stripes line up from the drawers!!! I could just scream from happiness. 

I left the inside of the dresser the same wood it was before. The first time it had been painted, it was just the visible facade that was done and I just went with that. I actually like how it looks to have the wood inside. I did add felt pads to the back of the drawer corners to help the paint not get so beat up from normal use. I mean, it's going in a kids' room. I'll be glad I took pictures because it may not look this fantastic ever again. 

When we had a non-rainy few hours (80% humidity instead of 100%) I took it all outside and sprayed 3 thin coats of polycrylic over all the painted surfaces. Let that cure some more and then put all the hardware back on. 

I'm seriously enamored with it and am looking for more things to paint. Best part? I did it all for the price of 2 sample tubs of paint from Lowe's. True dat. 

Price breakdown: 

Dresser: $0: already owned

Paint: 2 @ $2.94 = $5.88 (I used Valspar Dove White 7002-7 and Lincoln Cottage Black 4009-2 both in Satin)

Polycrylic: $0: already owned. 

Plus I have 80% of the black paint left and about 1/3 of the white. Which is good, because I have some lumber in our storage unit just screaming to be used up :)

Have you ever given something a new life with a coat of paint?