I have been itching to paint some furniture! Since we have had such a wet spring/early summer, it's been hard to find a time that I could haul everything outside and leave it to dry and not worry about it getting rained on. So this past week, I finally just decided to bite the bullet and start the ball rolling indoors.
I have had this bookshelf that my BIL made for me years ago.. I never stained it, or sealed it or painted it... it has just sat there naked in the corner of the room year after year. We have been overhauling our catch-all room, aka guest room, in segments and this bookshelf is about to be put to use, so I decided it was now or never!
 |
| wouldn't be the first time that our kitchen served as a work shop! |
I loved this tutorial that I used for crates we had at our wedding. Easy peasy. Fun to watch. And mostly free! So I thought, what the heck. I will give it a go on this bookshelf, and see where I want to go from there!
I hauled the bookshelf to our tiny kitchen and wiped it down, after brewing a pot of coffee, and then waited for the coffee to cool before applying it. Last time I did this, I used a spray bottle which worked decently, but it was also hard to tell if you had saturated everything well. I went with a foam brush this time.
 |
| IMPORTANT: always take a break for espresso and gelato. |
The second step is to apply a mixture of vinegar and steel wool that you have let sit for AT LEAST 24 hours. This is where I cheated. I had a good amount of the vinegar concoction left from a year ago, and since I couldn't find any steel wool in my house (and it was somewhere around 10 pm), I decided to just use the old vinegar. Using the same foam brush, I applied the vinegar to the now dry bookshelf...and waited.. and waited.. and nothing happened. When everything goes as planned with this, the wood will change colors right before your eyes (pretty rad). But that never happened. So I let the first coat of vinegar dry and applied a second coat, hoping that would make a difference. Still nothing. Boo. I don't know why it didn't work, but my guess would be the old vinegar concoction.
 |
| After all that, the wood looked a touch darker, buttoning impressive. |
So the NEXT day... my adventure pal and advice lady, Caity, came along as we looked at stain colors and paint colors. I didn't want to wait another 24 hours or more for my wood to change colors (instant gratification, by George), so I ended up choosing the same dark walnut stain that I used for my table top and stained away.... indoors. Not the best life decision, but rain was forecast and I didn't want to risk it (yay, fumes!).
 |
| it almost got left in this state, but I pressed on. |
 |
| really feeling the fumes at this point! |
On day 3 of this project, I decided to add paint. THIS time, I went outside. Taking my cues from the same tutorial, I mixed paint and water at an approximate 2/3 paint to 1/3 water ratio and then started slapping it on and wiping it off. Let's just take a minute to thank Jesus for the backs of furniture that allow you to experiment before you commit. Amen.
There it is.. the finished product! I decided to leave the backs and sides of the inside paint free, and I love it! The only bummer is that this is getting stashed in the spare room where I won't be able to stare at it lovingly without having to go out of my way. #firstworldproblems.
 |
| PS, the Havianas in this picture broke a couple days later :( :( :( |
 |
| LOVE. |
Comments