With the tough part, sanding, completed, it's on to the fun part - staining!
Remember, the table will have a stained top with painted legs, and the chairs will be similar, stained seat and painted legs.
I chose Dark Walnut stain by Minwax. I found it a breeze to work with. I didn't have to worry about dripping too much because most of my surfaces were horizontal. The seat backs weren't, but still no issues with dripping.
The can said to leave the stain on for 5-15 minutes before wiping off. The longer you leave it on, the darker the stain will be. So I put on my first swipe with the paint brush, and it almost completely soaked in immediately. Yikes! I was not expecting that. It was like a sponge how quickly the wood soaked up the stain.
I think I dried out the wood somehow. I'm a beginner so I don't really know, but I had an almost black stain after sitting on the wood for almost 3 minutes. I've read other blogs where they did 4 coats of the exact same stain, and theirs is nowhere near as dark as mine.
I think the color will be fine once the legs are painted. It looks terribly dark right now, but I do like how the wood grain shows through.
Sad day, you can totally tell where Betsey and I didn't sand as thoroughly. Bummer. I will call it character, because there is NO WAY I'm sanding again. :)
3 comments:
WOW! You ARE amazing! Can't wait for the finished product. My laziness would have said, "Throw the table out and buy what you want." Glad you aren't lazy!
I think those previous stain marks just add to the marbling effect! Let's start telling people we PLANNED for it to look that way. :)
So far, so good I say. Thanks for posting pictures of the project; I have been anxious to see how it turned out. I didn't realize so much of the wood pattern would show through the stain...it didn't with whatever was on the table originally. Interesting. Definitely adds to the character of the piece!
love you,
Betsey
Somehow I missed this post in my flurry to catch up with your posting madness. Looks really cool, Em! It really does show the natural wood pattern, which I think is a huge plus. Natural materials don't lose their style over the years like paint & other "fake" materials. :) Oh, and I can't tell where you sanded less. Must be easier for you to see because, well, you did all the work!
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