Bedside Tables - Before

I mentioned last week that I bought a pair of bedside tables off of Craigslist for $35.

Structurally, they were in great shape.  They had all of the hardware, the drawers and doors opened smoothly.  There were only two trim pieces that needed to be reglued, but nothing was missing.

The finish, however, was horrible.  Remember crackle finishes - well these had naturally crackled, bubbled and flaked off.  If you ran a fingernail over the finish, half of it came off with  you.

I decided to completely sand the tops to restain them. 


Night and Day difference

Once I saw how beautiful the wood was underneath, I was a bit trepidatious to start the staining process since I had never actually stained anything before.  So I left them sitting on my patio Friday night.

And it rained.

We're in Austin and going through a huge drought.  I think it's rained twice since we moved in March.  But of course it decides to rain the night I leave my freshly sanded tables outside.  I don't get really freaked out by horror movies - but I literally had to work up the courage to even look at the damage.  It was as if someone had told me there might be a dead body out on my patio.

Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  I knew I could sand out the water spots, but there was a strange black marking on one of the tables that I was really worried about coming off.  (I would have taken a picture, but I was not in my right mind.)  Throughout the morning, I kept repeating "I hope that black mark comes off."  In my head, of course.  Well, except for the two dozen times I said it to the boyfriend.

Saturday afternoon, I pulled on my big girl underwear and decided to stop worrying and just get to sanding.  It took some elbow grease, but the black spot disappeared before I sanded a big divot in the top.  I may or may not have started dancing a jig.  You can probably guess which.

Stay tuned for the after pictures.