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Yesterday, I took a while to refinish the aspect desk in our sitting room. After trying and on the lookout for a aspect desk to go between the chairs on this room, and having completely no success, my mother gave me this desk that she was now not utilizing.
It’s an Ethan Allen desk that had a really thick and darkish manufacturing unit end on it. And people outdated, darkish manufacturing unit finishes are simply not my factor. I had thought of portray it, however this room already has a number of painted wooden, and it doesn’t have any pure wooden aside from the window shades.
So I made a decision to refinish the desk as an alternative of portray it. Truly, all I did was strip off all the outdated end and go away the wooden pure. The wooden beneath all of that heavy, darkish end was truly fairly fairly by itself.
It doesn’t even have any sort of end on it proper now. It’s simply naked wooden. My plan proper now could be to make use of my favourite water-based clear coat — Common Finishes Excessive Efficiency Topcoat in a flat end.
However I’m going to attend for the brand new rug to reach earlier than I make any particular selections. In my thoughts’s eye, I believe this desk will look nice on the brand new rug, however I need to see it with my precise eyes earlier than I resolve for positive.
Stripping this desk was more durable than I anticipated. Yesterday was an extremely humid day, and far to my shock, the stripper would dry nearly as quick as I might brush it onto the desk. I’ve by no means had that have earlier than, and I used to be utilizing the very same stripper I all the time use (Klean Strip Premium Stripper). So I believe it will need to have been the climate. I might have anticipated humidity to maintain it moist and workable longer, however the very reverse occurred.
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So within the period of time it often takes for the stripper to eat by the end, it had dried to a crispy end that wasn’t really easy to scrape off.
So I finally gave up on that and determined to go straight to the sander. I had tried to keep away from that as a result of I wasn’t positive if this desk had veneer, and it’s really easy to sand by veneer when coping with these thick manufacturing unit finishes. However I needed to take that probability, as a result of the stripper possibility simply wasn’t going to work in any respect.
Because the desk is fairly small, and there’s no approach my 5-inch sander would get into all the areas I wanted to sand, I ended up taking it aside. Luckily, the desk was so outdated that all the wooden glue had given approach by now, and the desk was simply being held along with about 15 screws. However having all the items separated made the sanding course of very fast and simple.
To get the end out of the little fluted areas on the legs, I used this scraper. This device is a should should you’re refinishing hardwood flooring (to get the end out of the corners), however I had by no means used it on furnishings earlier than.
However it has these sharp corners on it that make it simple to get down into the fluted particulars.
So I put the nook down into the groove, and scraped about thrice in barely totally different angles.
After which I switched to the opposite aspect and repeated that course of. I used to be fairly shocked at how shortly this went. It was a a lot simpler and cleaner course of than attempting to make use of paint stripper in these fluted particulars.
You possibly can see right here how properly it labored. The groove on the precise took about two minutes to wash the unique end out. You possibly can see how nice it appears to be like in comparison with the one on the left that also must be scraped.
So after some sanding, scraping, after which end sanding by hand with 220-grit sandpaper (that course of goes fairly shortly and isn’t labor intensive in any respect), I used to be left with this pile of elements and slightly mound of screws that wanted to be turned again right into a aspect desk. This time I used wooden glue to place it again collectively, so it’s a lot sturdier now than it was earlier than.
I actually adore it simply as it’s, so I’m hoping it’ll work completely with the brand new rug. If it does, it’ll simply want about two coats of the topcoat, with a fast sanding utilizing 220-grit sandpaper between coats. Straightforward peasy.
I’m not a type of individuals who can acknowledge totally different wooden species, so I do not know what that is. All I do know for positive is that it’s NOT oak, pine, or walnut. These are actually the one three I do know. ?
It’s fairly purple, and I might swear that it’s a mushy wooden, however I could possibly be fallacious about that. And it’s an Ethan Allen desk that’s most likely a number of a long time outdated, if that offers any hints. What do you suppose? Cherry? Though I’m fairly positive cherry is a tough wooden. Properly, no matter it’s, I believe it’s very fairly now that it’s been free of that outdated, thick, darkish end.
