Some of my crafty challenges have worked out great, others haven't. Take for instance, my photo wall in my front entry/living room.
The frames were a dollar a piece that I spray painted white, and then put photos of the kids into. I always have issues with getting photos hung up perfectly, so I used Velcro to adhere them to the wall. It worked great!
Another project that I have done many times is to make wreaths for my front door. I always have something on the door that is seasonal. I have done the coffee filter wreath, a did a patriotic wreath out of old clothes that I tied onto a wire frame, and I have hot glued flowers on to a foam wreath.
All of these with great success. I just wish that I had photos of some of the wreaths that I have done, before I tore them apart to create some other masterpiece.
One crafty thing that I am not sure how to categorize is my kitchen table. It is a simple oak round pedestal table with a leaf. I have had that table for twelve years. It had gotten pretty beaten up. The finish on it was peeling up, it had paint stains, water marks, scratches, etc. You name it, it had it. It got to the point where for the last four years I kept it covered with a table cloth simply because I was so embarrassed about it. Well, I kept seeing all those photos on Pinterest about refinishing or painting your battered kitchen table. I decided, what did I have to loose?
One beautiful bright sunny day, I rolled that table out my front door and started to sand. I sanded and sanded until I sanded all my finger nails down to stubs. That table top was a thing of beauty! I decided that there was no need to sand down the pedestal or the legs, as those were fine, and that any marks there were just "character" marks. So, what is a girl to do with a table with a raw wood top? I had seen a photo of a pedestal table that had been painted white. That is what I wanted, only I only wanted the top painted. All the rest of it was going to stay its Honey Oak finish. I got the paint and slapped a coat on it. It dried, I sanded it again, painted again and waited. Day two, I sanded and painted a third coat, stepped back and looked. I looked and looked and looked. I decided it looked nothing like what I imagined it was going to be. Hideous!!!
Day four dawned and I went back and studied that table some more. I decided that it needed one more coat of paint. I got half the table painted with a fourth coat and found that the paint was pulling up and I had a terrible mess on my hands.
I decided that it just wasn't meant to be a two toned table. I ran to the hardware store and bought my first can of stripper. I slathered the stripper on, watched it bubble and ooze, got buzzed by the fumes and then started to scrape. I had no clue was what a job it was to strip paint. I learned fast. It took me a whole day to strip, another day to clean and sand and re prepare the table top. YUCK!
Meanwhile my two kids Frick and Frack were quite happy and content to be eating on the living room floor 'picnic' style, however the other part of the family wasn't quite so enthusiastic about the whole process.
Finally I was back down to a beautiful smooth raw wood oak pedestal table. What to do with it? Stain it and put a clear coat polyurethane on it and just be done. Back to the hardware store I went and bought a can of stain. I put my first coat on, let it sit and then very carefully wiped it off. What did I find? That only half my table was taking the stain, the other half repelled it! I ran over to my next door neighbor and racked his woodworking brain what was I doing wrong? His answer: the prior finish on my table had been so bad for so long that any oils from cooking, or being spilled had soaked into the wood and was repelling any new oils from being absorbed. He came out with an arsenal of mineral spirits, other finishes, sandpaper, etc. He tried everything he could and nothing worked. The only solution that we could come up with is to sand and sand and sand some more. That I did.
Finally tired of sanding I decided enough is enough, I put a couple last coats of stain on it, wiped it off and declared it good enough. Time to put the polyurethane on it. I hightailed it back to the hardware store and bought an aerosol can of polyurethane. It is supposed to give you a really nice even finish with no fuss or muss. <snickering> Right..... What I got was about a half a table. The can petered out on me mid spray. Back to the hardware store I went, to get another traditional can of poly. With a sponge, I put that on, let it sit and dry. Three day's I waited, watched and and got anxious. Finally, I declared it done and I carted that sucker back into the house, up a flight of stairs and put it in the kitchen.
We ate a lovely meal and marveled at my refinished table. It was beautiful. I had such a great feeling of accomplishment that I had done this. My very first time working with wood and that I had overcome all these problems and difficulties. Good for me!!!!!
Yes, I have learned much from my table project. I know that when I go to strip that table this summer and refinish it, I know what a mess the stripper will be, I know what color to stain it and how many coats it will take and what kind of poly I will need. I also know that I should leave it sit in the garage for about the next 10 years, or until the kids are in college, so that it will have enough time to cure.
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