Break a leg
Hi,
So, although I haven't really talked about it, my husband and I just moved into our VERY OWN apartment (condo... but I feel like condo sounds too much like condom so Imma keep saying apartment).
This brought with it some clashes, some disagreements on the new furniture and the decoration and interior design we'd like. We settled on my overall idea of the area, but my husband had very strict rules on the furniture that we could bring in. He doesn't like the idea of second hand items, since other people may have used them for all kinds of nefarious business (read: had sex on them, died on them, ate meat on them, etc. etc.). On a superficial level I understand where he's coming from, but for me it's so much harder to deal with the idea of sending yet another item to landfill that could still provide so much use, happiness, love and laughter at a very affordable price. This is where I'm coming from.
This brought with it some clashes, some disagreements on the new furniture and the decoration and interior design we'd like. We settled on my overall idea of the area, but my husband had very strict rules on the furniture that we could bring in. He doesn't like the idea of second hand items, since other people may have used them for all kinds of nefarious business (read: had sex on them, died on them, ate meat on them, etc. etc.). On a superficial level I understand where he's coming from, but for me it's so much harder to deal with the idea of sending yet another item to landfill that could still provide so much use, happiness, love and laughter at a very affordable price. This is where I'm coming from.
So summarizing: NEW vs. OLD.
I ended up convincing him that we should have a nice balance of the two. We reused our old bed from the last time we moved out, as well as the tv-table. We bought a new couch, a new dining table and a new tv. I bought two chairs from some students for 7 dollars. I'll upload pictures of those later. BUT, pièce the résistance, I bought a beautiful bench for our table. It's almost the same color wood and came with a beautiful blue pillow for them tushies. It was beautiful.... and then it broke. The sleek legs just slid out from under our friends' bottoms. Slightly disappointing, but also an opportunity!
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| The side of the bench with the broken connecting piece. |
An opportunity to fix, to recreate and to make sure that this gorgeous bench will withstand the ages. I went to The Home Depot, and got about 1 1/2 foot of beautiful wood, the same thickness as on the other side. Being the smartiepants I am - and having stubbed my toe enough to prevent some further silly mistakes - I cut out a piece of cardboard the exact size of the piece of wood I needed, and poked holes in the exact spots I needed my screws to connect. In the end I came home from THD with the piece of wood below. I sanded it with my sanding machine that we bought ages ago for a completely different purpose, but that since has sanded walls in our apartment, floors, stairs, other pieces of wood, the chairs I mentioned, and probably more. I first sanded it with a pretty rough sanding paper, and finished it off with a 220 or 240 grain.
I sanded it on the balcony, cause I had JUST CLEANED THE ENTIRE **** PLACE and was definitely not in the mood for more dusting.
Staining is fairly easy: make sure that you sand it to your satisfaction (soft or rough whatever you like), clean off all the saw/sand dust with a brush, wipe it with a slightly damp cloth. Let it dry completely and then wipe it again. First, treat it with a pre-stain to condition the wood. This prevents blotchy colours. Let it sit and dry for about 5-15 minutes, and then wipe off the residue with a dry clean cloth.
Then, stain it with your favorite color stain. SHAKE THE BOTTLE, stir frequently.. Try it out on an inconspicuous spot before (underneath the chair, on the back of your wood) to see if the colour is what you expected and/or like. Then use another dry, clean cloth to stain your entire surface. Rub it in and then let it dry again for 5-15 minutes. After that, wipe off the leftover residue and let it dry for 8 hours before using a polyurethane spray on it. The spray will seal it and make it water resistant.
Finally, I glued my whole thing together with Gorilla Glue, also bought at The Home Depot (that place is my new favorite store), and used a few (9) smooth nails to hammer it home. The glue needs approx. 24 hours to set, so I'll just spray my entire thing construction with polyurethane when the glue has dried (somewhere tonight). Let's hope and pray that this works out!
Then I'll add experienced woodworker to my resume.
I'll totally update this with the final result! Just too excited to wait, and also currently hyped up on coffee.
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| Piece of wood: I forgot the name of the wood, but it was closest in matching the color and hardness that I needed. |
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| Connecting piece after prestain and stain (Minwax) |
Then, stain it with your favorite color stain. SHAKE THE BOTTLE, stir frequently.. Try it out on an inconspicuous spot before (underneath the chair, on the back of your wood) to see if the colour is what you expected and/or like. Then use another dry, clean cloth to stain your entire surface. Rub it in and then let it dry again for 5-15 minutes. After that, wipe off the leftover residue and let it dry for 8 hours before using a polyurethane spray on it. The spray will seal it and make it water resistant.
Finally, I glued my whole thing together with Gorilla Glue, also bought at The Home Depot (that place is my new favorite store), and used a few (9) smooth nails to hammer it home. The glue needs approx. 24 hours to set, so I'll just spray my entire thing construction with polyurethane when the glue has dried (somewhere tonight). Let's hope and pray that this works out!
Then I'll add experienced woodworker to my resume.
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| Recommended to stack something heavy on the items while the glue dries. In my case, the best option was a big-ass bag of rice. |
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