Refinishing Furniture

It all started with getting a new TV for Christmas.  Since our new TV wouldn't fit our entertainment center it was time for something new.  And for some reason we decided we should refinish a piece of furniture to fit our taste.  Over the holidays.  And if we were going to go with white, we would need to change the coffee table to match.  So much work.  I'm not sure if I would do it again now knowing how much time and work it was going to take.  But one thing is for sure, I love how they turned out.

But if you're ever crazy like me and think you want to refinish a piece of furniture here are some dos and don'ts.

- If you send your husband to pick up your furniture from someone off Craigslist make sure he knows that if it smells like pot to not buy it.
- If your husband does buy stinky smelly smoky furniture, add some baking soda and let it sit a week.  Vacuum it up.  And if you definitely don't want it to stink, wash it with some Murphy's Oil soap.
- Just buy a palm sander.  It saved me so much time.  I found a cheap one on Amazon for $20.  Best $20 spent in this whole project.
- After buying said sander, sand your project before you start priming.  Even if your primer says it'll adhere to anything, it's still worth the effort.
- If you want to go for a high gloss with a super smooth finish go with an oil based paint.  More of a pain to clean up, but it'll give you a better result.  We used a water-based semi gloss with a smoothing additive and it worked ok.  We ended up having to add a gloss over top because the smoothing additive toned down the semi-gloss.  And the smoothing additive didn't work great either.
- Buy the more expensive tape.  I brought the regular blue kind (but it said it had an anti-bleeding seal!) when I should have bought frog tape.  I had so much bleeding from the stain.
- Tack cloth is AMAZING.  I found out about it for staining, but I really wish I would have had it for painting too.  It's a sticky cloth that picks up all the teeny tiny particles of dust.
- Also, stain first, then paint.
- Refinish over the summer.  Then you don't have to keep your project warm with space heaters in the garage.
- I stained with a combo stain and polyurethane in one.  It turned out super matte.  So I ended back at Lowe's for a can of polyurethane.
- And when you think you might go crazy, just get your husband to come help.