Restoration Hardware Who?

It's going to be a while before I have any more construction updates to share aside from more pictures of dirt.  Evidently, there are dueling engineers fighting over soil, so they're going to run more tests on it, and those results will take 3 days, so we've hurried and now we wait.  So in the meantime, I thought I might tantalize you with my latest project.  I'm rather proud of this one!

When we moved, mom and dad were going to sell their dining room table and the matching buffet.  It's a very large, very solid oak farmhouse style table.  it's 6' long without the extensions, and that was how I was used to seeing it.  It was also a very orange honey oak color that lends itself to country decor, and while that finish isn't our style, the table itself is a winner.  So we asked them to lug this beast from Boston out to Dallas for us with the intent of refinishing it for use in our new house!

Here she WAS in her petite form without the extensions in all her orange glory.  :)

such great character just begging to be refinished.  

Four months went by with us using it in its natural state before I finally mustered the courage to tackle a fear of mine - stripping and staining.  With paint, I'm completely fearless - much to the dismay of my natural wood loving friends and family -but stain has always scared me!

I love Restoration Hardware, but I am not the type to spend $3k on just the table.  So I set out to RestorationHardwarize our table!   Here are the inspiration finishes, somewhere between these two:

Restoration Hardware Willems Aged Elm

Restoration Hardware 17th C. Monastery Table in Grey Acacia

I used all of the chairs as experiments, since those will all be replaced (another project, stay tuned!)  Once I decided there would be no faux painting in this table's future, I sucked it up and realized I had to remove the varnish and stain, and it was shockingly painless.  I used Citristrip and couldn't believe how easy the varnish and stain came off in one application.  It is even a pretty color going on, and it smells nice and is safe for indoor use.  You just brush it on and scrape it off with a putty knife.  Ok so it's not quite that simple... then you have to dip steel wool in odor-free mineral spirits to get in all the crevices and clean the piece of excess stripping gel.

Here's the table down to bare wood: (don't judge my mess, or the fact that I did this project in our foyer!)

Table after stripping and sanding down to bare wood

Then I applied Minwax Classic Gray stain.  This was a wee bit scary going on because the bare wood was so pretty and the gray stain goes on very blue.  It's gray, but with a strong chalky blue kick.  See what I mean?

Table with classic gray stain - 1 coat

But fear not, the plan all along was to do a gray stain base letting the grain show through and then applying a brown color wash over it.  I made my own color wash stain using a sample jar of Glidden eggshell tinted to Martha Stewart Bay Colt.  But for a little extra sticking power over the stain, I mixed in a little plaster of paris and then cut the paint/plaster of paris mixture 1:1 with water.  Then I just brushed it on and sponged it off.  Voila - now the brown just cuts the chalkiness of the gray and I loved the color at this point.

Table after the brown color wash over gray stain

So I got 2 coats of polycrylic on the legs and 1 coat on the top when I realized the poly was making some of the gray charm disappear.  See the difference?  After the poly it just got very ho-hum!

After the polycrylic application

I tried to ignore it, but after the first coat of poly set on the top I gave it a light sanding, and the sanding dust settled into all the cracks making them look white and it instantly brought the table back to life.  So out came the paintbrushes again!  This time I made a cream color wash just like the first mixture, but with Martha Stewart Fledgling.  This time I flooded just the cracks with the light stain then wiped it off.  I love the effect.  Couple more coats of poly and she's done.  Now I'm putting a tablecloth on her so we will appreciate our "new again" table when we move into the new house.

Sorry - I was excited and didn't clean up my paper towel explosion before snapping this picture!  :)  All DONE!!

COMPLETE!!  I LOVE IT!  MUCH CLOSER TO THE INSPIRATION PIECES!

And once again, before and after of the details:

Before

After

So there it is - the first piece of "new" furniture for our new house... the first of many projects to come!


If anyone's interested, here are all the products I used:  (plus about a roll of papertowels!)