Progress: Gel Stained Wood Bed

Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap  —  May 5, 2014 — Leave a comment

Well y’all, it was another rather unproductive weekend at the Tryforos house. My pantry doors are still wonky and my microwave is still plugged in with an extension cord, but I did eat some crawfish and I did knock one item off my to do list: staining these wood beds that Nick’s parents handed down to use for Jack to use. It was a big project and I don’t have a garage or carport, so my plan was to assemble both of the beds under a canopy to provide some shelter from the elements. Turns out I couldn’t assemble the beds because I was missing some parts (like all of them), but it all worked out because I could learn all the pieces up against the poles of the canopy and pull them 1-2 at a time into the middle to work on.

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Since I didn’t have much luck stripping the old finish, I used General Finishes gel stain. I’ve heard that it’s really great for this sort of thing.

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A friend warned me that the gel stain she used on her kitchen cabinets peeled and chipped so I did some reading and learned that the best way to prevent that from happening is to apply it more like a stain than paint. So I worked in sections and used a clean sock to wipe it on, let it sit for a few minutes, and then wipe it off.

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It took about three hours spread over two sessions yesterday afternoon, but it still was a much faster process than stripping off all the old varnish would have been.

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We’re not expecting any rain for the next few days so I’ll be leaving them outside as long as I can to get most of the stink off. In the meantime, it looks like I need to track down some locking bolts!

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Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap

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