Craft Room Redesign - Part 1

While working on refinishing another piece of furniture (Post to come once finished), we decided to work on my craft room work desk top.

Along time ago when Spiegel used to sell furniture, I purchased a great desk on clearance. Over the years my kitty cats used it as a bed, a scratching pad and a playground. Gotta love cats!

The top work area was completely scratched and it was looking sad.

My husband began sanding the top but the previous coats of stain made it impossible to sand properly.

We decided to give the paint stripper a try. It was added to the top with a brush and we let it work for at least a half hour.

Then we proceeded to remove the top layer with a spatula. There was still some stain left, so another coat of stripper was added.

 

I gotta say, though, had I known what a nice color removing one layer of stain would give, I would have stopped there. Unfortunately, since we had already sanded a spot (the clear spot on the top), we had to remove it all.

After removing the second coat of stain, my husband went to town on the sanding part. I do admit I was a bit jealous of him doing that process, because I love to do things like that. There is some weird satisfaction from watching things change from something I'm doing. Similar to cleaning something really dirty and watching it go from dirty to clean. Odd, I know, but strangely satisfying.

Here is the result of 2 sanding sessions. One with a coarse grid sanding paper and a second with a finer one to give a smooth to the touch finish.

(The "stand" the desk top is on, is actually the dresser

 I'm refinishing for the craft room. That will be Part 2)



Wiped down the top with a clean, wet rag after sanding. Then added the first coat of dark mahogany stain with a foam brush. I chose a foam brush instead of bristels to avoid having streaks, but that's just a personal choice. Let that dry overnight and get soaked into the wood. Followed that with a second coat of stain because I wanted that dark look it had before.

(on the left is the first coat from previous day / on the right new stain coat being added)

Second coat on... now to dry overnight.

And after 5 coats of Polyurethane, light sanding in between each coat and a final coat of lemon oil... here is the finished table in the craft room.

I seriously need to get a camera. These pics from my phone are not very good.  Here is a closer look

It took some time between the drying of coats and sanding, but the finished product was well worth it. I can't stop running my hands over the top now. It's so smooth and pretty.