get sh*t done sunday - the furniture edition

So this past Sunday, I did two things I've had on my 'to do' list for eons... finally!

When I moved into my house six and a half years ago, I bought a lot of nice, dark stained furniture for my living room (a bookcase, a console for my tv) to match my dark teak wood dining room table. But I had an unstained, giant coffee table from Pier 1 Imports....

Well, I don't anymore!

And as the #2, I decided to also refurbish my childhood desk that my parents kicked out of their house a few years ago that's been collecting dust in my garage.

Step 1: Lug giant table out to really hot garage (why didn't I do this last weekend when it was not 90 degrees outside?). Dust cobwebs and plain-old dust off of old desk that's been shoved in the corner of the garage for 3+ years.

Step 2: Unpack new sander (since I thrashed the old sander while sanding and painting the garage trim and window box shelves two weeks ago) and thrash the new sander while removing old stain, scratches, dents, splinters, etc. from furniture to be stained.

(Note: the "high performance dust collector" on the back of my new Black & Decker Mouse Detail sander does NOT collect the majority of the "dust" created by sanding a giant unstained coffee table and really old, previously stained open-top desk. It collects a little, but there was more on the outside of the "high performance dust collector" contraption than inside it.)

 

Step 3: Vacuum sanded dust particles off of coffee table and desk so there is a smooth, clean surface to paint. 

Step 4: Paint the wood stain onto every visible surface, being sure to drizzle it into the crevices between the wood slats. I used Varathane Wood Stain in the color "Kona." At first, I just put this on the desk, and had an older stain I'd used in my condo on the table (seen below) because I thought the Kona was too dark for the coffee table.....

Step 5: ... But after it dried on the desk (in just an hour -- the label doesn't lie!), I really liked it.. it had a great shine to it like my other furniture. (The older stain didn't have a shine to it.) So I re-stained the coffee table Monday night. 

And while I think it IS darker than my other furniture (because it doesn't have any red to it like the TV console and book shelf's stain does when the light hits it), I am really happy with the re-do. And Lucky is really happy to have his hiding place back from the garage after two days. (Yes, I have newspaper taped to the legs still because I'm paranoid about the new stain staining my cream carpet. Sue me :p) 

As for my former childhood desk, after buying a really cute new knob for the pull-top door and six new drawer pulls at Home Depot, I've decided to try it out in my dining room as a mini-buffet cabinet of sorts. I've put all of my table linens (that were formerly stashed in a cabinet above the fridge) in the drawers, and figure I can open it up and put serving dishes or other assorted overflow items from the table on it when I have people over and we actually eat inside. Yay!