Welcome back, avid readers! While I'm currently working on refinishing a desk, I thought I'd let you get a glimpse of my last project: the almighty chiffarobe! Even though it's been a few months since I finished the chiffarobe, it is still near and dear to my heart...mainly because I really, really like to say the word chiffarobe. As in, "Brandon, hand me those jeans out of the chiffarobe!" or "I'll be down in a second, I'm just primping in the mirror of my chiffarobe!" God bless you, Harper Lee. Without To Kill A Mockingbird, this project may never have materialized. Oh, and to you English majors out there, I'm going with Lee's spelling of chiffarobe.
Anyway, on to the project:
My parents had a fairly plain-looking chiffarobe that they once refinished from my great-grandparents' farmhouse. Back then, natural oak colors and country-style accessories were all the rage. It saddened me that when I finally got the chiffarobe away from a wall and investigated the back, it had been a beautiful dark wood at some point... B
last you, 80's! At any rate, my parents very generously agreed to let me have the chiffarobe, and have carte blanche with any changes. This may have been born out of desperation as they were trying to downsize to a smaller home, but at any rate, I benefitted out of their despair.
Here's a before picture - note the knobs on the drawers.
Argh. This picture is pretty dark - there wasn't much light in the room. Anyway, the chiffarobe was actually at least 2 shades lighter than what you see here. OK, back to the story:
To begin with, I had some major sanding to do in order to take off the old stain. In reality, I basically scuffed it up all over so it would take the new stain. I'm not a professional sander, and I have a really hard time using the electric sander. So, because I do almost all of the sanding by hand, you can imagine why I settle for a nice scuffiness instead of perfection. In order to sand, I had to take the mirror/door off of its hinges, removed all the drawers, remove the smaller mirror, remove knobs from drawers, and then go to town. The sanding process took 2 days, and at the end of the second day, I used the leaf blower to get rid of sanding residue, and then wiped everything out with a slightly damp cloth. This is a really important step to ensure smooth coverage when you put on the stain.
On the third day, I began the staining process. I decided on Bombay Mahogany hi-gloss stain and polyeurathane in one. I was skeptical about using a combination product, but because the chiffarobe would always be indoors, I decided to try the shortcut. I started from the top down, using a natural bristle brush and tried to remember all the usual tips: Keep a wet edge - God help you if you let a section dry and then try to match up stain color, less is more with stain (you'll be doing multiple coats), and catch any drips right away.
On this first staining day, I made the decision that I was only going to stain the inside of the closet portion once - so I tried my best to make it a decent job. I managed to do one coat on everything in that one day - knobs included. It looked good, but the color wasn't as deep as I'd like. Of course, that can easily be solved with multiple coats, but I was really hoping that only one more coat would be necessary.
So, on day two of staining (fourth overall), I started off early in the morning using very fine sandpaper on the first coat. Then I had to clean all of the debris off of every surface so I could do the second coat. Without the interior of the closet, this went very quickly. I managed to get it all done before dark and decided that the two coats was enough.
I used a bit of extra fine steel wool the next day to fix any imperfections and to make it a bit smoother. Then we decided to take the chiffarobe upstairs to the master bedroom and see if it would fit in with our decidedly dark and Asian-inspired furniture. I decided against using the newly-stained wooden knobs...though I have kept them for future use. We put in two drawer pulls that Brandon found in a market in Chiang Mai, and the other knobs were bought here in the good ol' US of A at a Lowes. We chose a plain knob that would pick up the antique brass look of the Thai drawer pulls.
So, voila!
Here she is, and although, not up to professional standards at all, she'll do just fine for us. We're happy with the glossy look now, but if we ever change our minds...I'm sure I can find four free days!
Posts to look forward to:
Two Very Different Desks
A Neglected Stairwell
*fingers crossed* Kitchen Remodel!
Anyway, on to the project:
My parents had a fairly plain-looking chiffarobe that they once refinished from my great-grandparents' farmhouse. Back then, natural oak colors and country-style accessories were all the rage. It saddened me that when I finally got the chiffarobe away from a wall and investigated the back, it had been a beautiful dark wood at some point... B
last you, 80's! At any rate, my parents very generously agreed to let me have the chiffarobe, and have carte blanche with any changes. This may have been born out of desperation as they were trying to downsize to a smaller home, but at any rate, I benefitted out of their despair.
Here's a before picture - note the knobs on the drawers.
Argh. This picture is pretty dark - there wasn't much light in the room. Anyway, the chiffarobe was actually at least 2 shades lighter than what you see here. OK, back to the story:
To begin with, I had some major sanding to do in order to take off the old stain. In reality, I basically scuffed it up all over so it would take the new stain. I'm not a professional sander, and I have a really hard time using the electric sander. So, because I do almost all of the sanding by hand, you can imagine why I settle for a nice scuffiness instead of perfection. In order to sand, I had to take the mirror/door off of its hinges, removed all the drawers, remove the smaller mirror, remove knobs from drawers, and then go to town. The sanding process took 2 days, and at the end of the second day, I used the leaf blower to get rid of sanding residue, and then wiped everything out with a slightly damp cloth. This is a really important step to ensure smooth coverage when you put on the stain.
On the third day, I began the staining process. I decided on Bombay Mahogany hi-gloss stain and polyeurathane in one. I was skeptical about using a combination product, but because the chiffarobe would always be indoors, I decided to try the shortcut. I started from the top down, using a natural bristle brush and tried to remember all the usual tips: Keep a wet edge - God help you if you let a section dry and then try to match up stain color, less is more with stain (you'll be doing multiple coats), and catch any drips right away.
On this first staining day, I made the decision that I was only going to stain the inside of the closet portion once - so I tried my best to make it a decent job. I managed to do one coat on everything in that one day - knobs included. It looked good, but the color wasn't as deep as I'd like. Of course, that can easily be solved with multiple coats, but I was really hoping that only one more coat would be necessary.
So, on day two of staining (fourth overall), I started off early in the morning using very fine sandpaper on the first coat. Then I had to clean all of the debris off of every surface so I could do the second coat. Without the interior of the closet, this went very quickly. I managed to get it all done before dark and decided that the two coats was enough.
I used a bit of extra fine steel wool the next day to fix any imperfections and to make it a bit smoother. Then we decided to take the chiffarobe upstairs to the master bedroom and see if it would fit in with our decidedly dark and Asian-inspired furniture. I decided against using the newly-stained wooden knobs...though I have kept them for future use. We put in two drawer pulls that Brandon found in a market in Chiang Mai, and the other knobs were bought here in the good ol' US of A at a Lowes. We chose a plain knob that would pick up the antique brass look of the Thai drawer pulls.
So, voila!
Here she is, and although, not up to professional standards at all, she'll do just fine for us. We're happy with the glossy look now, but if we ever change our minds...I'm sure I can find four free days!
Posts to look forward to:
Two Very Different Desks
A Neglected Stairwell
*fingers crossed* Kitchen Remodel!
2 comments:
Nice!
Fingers crossed????? Ha!
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