Shelf Life

I knew this day would come eventually, I just thought the tears would be of joy, and not of sorrow.  We found out we're moving.  To somewhere with the exact same climate, same distance from home, and lots more pollution.  We're moving to El Paso as soon as we can sell our house, as Stephen already has started his job there.

Just wanted to keep everyone in the loop.  My posts may get more scarce for a while, and I wanted to give you guys a heads up.

But for now, let's concentrate on positives.  Let's talk DIY.

I volunteer weekly at the local pregnancy center.  Recently, they remodeled some classrooms/office area.  An old medical exam table became a desk!  I bought a 4x8 sheet of blonde wood plywood, but I only needed and 2x8 for the desk top.  The rest became shelves!

I forgot to take a picture of everything installed, so unfortunately I'll have to update this post later with the big photo finish.  But here's all the work that went into some beautiful shelves.

But first - greetings, boring shelves.

What to do?  Stephen already routed the edges of the plywood to make them fancy, but that was as far as I got in the design.  I used a small scrap piece of wood to determine if I wanted to use pre-stain wood conditioner.

The difference is slight, but there was a difference.  Pre-stain evens out the pores of the wood so you don't get splotchy spots.

Also in this test, I realized the routed edges accepted stain poorly.  Plus, the routing process actually removed some of the layers of plywood, leaving gaps.  I found some paintable caulk to fill them in.

Also on the test piece, I noticed the edges didn't accept the stain in a very sightly manner.  I debated for a while on how to fix that, so I crossed my fingers and pulled out an old can of Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

I taped everything off with some plastic sheeting and painters tape and went to work.  I didn't even prime!

It turned out awesome.

I took out my sander to smooth the top, and sand off any stray spray.  Right after I went running.  To a very important business meeting.

The next day, it was time for color!  I stared with wood conditioner.  This goes on, and immediately afterwards you can apply stain, so the whole process goes pretty quickly.  I just used a cut up old tshirt to apply.

One down, one to go.

Stain was up next.  This was Minwax Dark Walnut. After applying, I pretty much immediately wiped off the excess.  It was dark enough without having to sit for very long.

Makes a big difference!

After drying a full 8 hours, it was time for polyurethane.  This was my first time using glossy poly, and I love it so much I will never use anything else.  So glossy.  I actually applied my first coat with a rag (you're not supposed to, and it went terrible, so don't do that).  The second and third coats turned out MUCH better using a foam brush.  Plus, after you're done, you can just toss it instead of using mineral spirits to clean off a high-quality brush.

Swoon....

I ended up doing three coats, sanding between each one.  Here's the finished product....

Be still, my heart.

I'll update this post with an "after/installed" picture next week!  Sorry for the buildup.  But let's remember what we started with here...

Happy Monday!

posted by Emma