A True Labor of Love

When I tell you that my husband really loves me I mean it.  Besides the obvious fact that I'm the best wife on the planet (ha, ha), he dedicated his entire week off to my projects.  Of course it's a project I've wanted to do for YEARS.   Yes, I said years!

The story goes like this:  I got a free dresser from a fabulous friend to use as a buffet in our dining room.   Let me rephrase that.  A dresser I was going to turn into a buffet for the dining room that would hold all our homeschool junk.  However, it was ugly.  I mean U-G-L-Y!!!!  But, it had huge potential.  I had a vision for this ugly furniture item and needed the Hubs' help. 

That's not it.  If we were going to make the dresser turned buffet pretty, we had to refinish the dining room table that was also very U-G-L-Y.   If you've visited my house you know the one.  The one I have to keep because it was a wedding gift from the Hubs' grandparents.

So, this is where the labor of love comes in.  It took us an entire week to complete the project and to say we worked on it everyday almost all day would be putting it mildly.  And while I'm at it, I should admit the Hubs did most of the work while I directed the vision.

I'm not the best photographer, and I forgot to take a before picture.  So, here's an old picture of the table that was a pine color.  The top was destroyed and I'm pretty sure you could read some of Chloe's grammar papers as they were literally inscribed on the table top.

ugly pine, so not my style any more

 And here is the after:

 Ahhh, beautiful, creamy white with distressed edges and new fabric on the seats.

pretty fabric from Hobby Lobby...Clearance!

distressing on the edges...like the sideways shot?

 We stained the top using Jacobean Minwax stain and it is beautiful!  Dark, rich, with some wood tones shining through.  The pictures don't reveal the true beauty.

 The whole processs was  a true nightmare.  The top had to be stripped and luckily my father in law assisted the Hubs with this process.

Then we painted and the paint went on horrible.  So, it had to be sanded and painted, sanded and painted. 

Finally, we distressed and tried to glaze.  Yeah, well, this is where the project failed!  The glaze did not work as suggested.  Fail, Fail, Fail!!!!  I was not happy!  So, we sanded, stained the edges, painted again and then sanded. This time we used a sprayer.  Duh, had we done that first, we wouldn't have wasted 2 days!  erg!  It was not fun.  I determined during the process that those bloggers that love refinishing furniture are crazy!  It was not fun, it was not enjoyable and I hated the whole process! 

That being said, I love, love, love the final product!  It's refreshing, clean and crisp.  And, I am begging the Hubs to redo our outdated entertainment center.  Basically he laughed, but I'm thinking maybe this summer he may be up for it.  Just maybe, he'll have forgotten about how much work it was!