Refinishing (and Finishing) Furniture

Anyone who reads this blog has probably finished or refinished a piece of furniture at some point in their life. It is one of the most rewarding projects that you can do. It just feels fantastic when you take something that is old and worn or beloved and you strip it down and then refinish it to shiny newness. I dream about finding an amazing hutch at a garage sale or flea market, haggling to get a great price, and then taking it home to refinish and put in my stair vestibule. I am still looking for that perfect piece.

It was about a month before last Christmas, we had moved back into our newly remodeled home and I was sitting at our informal dining table when I realized that it just didn't fit in with the new house. I loved the old thing (it was one of the first purchases that my husband made when he moved here after grad school) and it had great shape, but it was finished in a light stain that just screamed country, and the new house was definitely more beachy modern. One big problem was the chairs. While they were fully functional, they were just ordinary looking and boring and not the look I wanted in our new home. So, I sold them in a garage sale to a young man who was just getting his first apartment.

Original table and chairs

Around this time I saw these pictures in a Pottery Barn catalog and knew that was the look I wanted and I needed those chairs. They were a bit of a splurge, but hubby made them my Christmas present. Hooray for me. We even got one of the six I wanted for free with a bonus bucks deal (which resulted in me getting the last chair a few days after Christmas -- as soon as the bonus bucks could be used).

Pottery Barn chairs with two toned table (Image from PotteryBarn.com)

Pottery Barn chairs paired with a table similar in style to our table (Image from PotteryBarn.com)

However, the table needed some work. Out to the garage it went. We started by using stripper, to get the poly off the top of the table. It took three applications (and next time I want to try citristrip since I've heard it works really well) and a bit of scraping to get it all off. Next my husband sanded it down to get all the old stain out. I would say he did a three part sanding, going up in grit from a 100 to a 250 (I think). We didn't bother stripping the legs and apron of the table since I knew that I was going to paint this part white. We did clean it all really well and then sanded so the primer would have something to hold on to. I then restained the top of the table a deeper brown (Minwax English Chestnut or was it Special Walnut? -- of course I didn't write it down. I just stained some test pieces and decided which color I thought matched the chair legs the best). Two coats of stain and the table top was ready for three coats of polyurethane. Between each coat we sanded smooth. Finally, I taped off the table top from the apron and legs and primed and painted. One coat of primer and two coats of Behr Swiss Coffee in semi-gloss later and I had the perfect (the top looks great with the chair legs), newly refinished informal, everyday dining table for our great room.

Our refinished table with new chairs

(Of course the whole refinishing project ended up being more expensive than anticipated because without the table under the light, super tall hubby banged his head on the light and broke the glass. So we had to order a new glass piece (luckily it wasn't too expensive and way less than a whole new table).

Framing Prints, Pictures and Art

I know I said I was going to do a series on decorating our newly renovated house (and I still plan to do this once the kids are back in school) but I was just looking around the house today and realized that something that can really make a house stand out is its art. And it doesn't have to be expensive art. Much of what I have hanging in our house was either done by me, or is framed prints and photos. Lately, I have been experimenting with brightly colored mats. My inspirations were these pictures out of Better Homes and Gardens and (of course) one that I can't find in my archives right now.

Inspiration: Wide, light blue matts from Better Homes and Gardens

Inspiration: Wide pink matts from Better Homes and Gardens

And here is how I interpreted this in my own home.

Add a pop of color in your matts

dark and bright matts

I'd had this bright turquoise matt board for a long time (I just bought it because I loved the color) and so I decided to punch up this display with a little color. I still need to find just the right piece or pieces of art to hang above the bookcase. It is a very large and high wall so I feel like I need something quite substantial here.

Vestibule at the bottom of the stairs (I need to find the right piece to go under this picture)

We've had this print for a long time. I think the darker matt really pulls the eye into the print. Like most of the house, this area is another work in progress. I have been looking for a sideboard type piece to fit under the picture. It needs to be deep enough to store all the myriad games we have. I can't wait to find the right piece so that I can refinish it to be just what I want, but that's a different post.


In the dining room I matted cooking photos in different tones of green.

Using two wide matts (at least 1" reveals)

I got the idea to do two wider matts from this inspiration photo from Better Homes and Gardens. I loved the two toned wide blue matts. (OK, I also love the floor to ceiling bookcases. I want to do this in my office/study someday soon) I interpreted this with an off white outer and light green inner matt. Eventually I might change out the outer matt for another shade of green.

Inspiration: wide two tone double blue matts from Better Homes and Gardens

In the guest room, I added some color in the bright yellow matts around photos of the kids with their grandparents. Someday I'll post about how I try to make our guest room inviting and comfortable for guests. The impressionist style painting was done for me as a Christmas gift from one of my uncles. The colors were perfect for this room.

Using a bright yellow matt to highlight a photo

I am blessed with a very artistic family and like to include their artwork in my home. I have a watercolor done by my mom hanging in the hallway right when you come into the house from the garage. SInce the garage is our main family entrance, I thought this would be the perfect place to hang this inspiring scene from the Napa Valley.

Upstairs, in the master suite I painted and hung an oversized painting of a flower. I painted this on a thin piece of plywood (I got this idea from David Bromstad of Color Splash). You don't have to go out and spend a lot of money on canvas to make fun art for your house. I think the plywood cost me about $5 at Home Depot (and I only used half the sheet). I also painted a scene on the back of it, so if we get tired of the flower we can just turn it around.

Upstairs, in my boys rooms, I covered matts with scraps of fabric I had lying around the house that coordinate with their room colors. Some ribbon adds a little interest to these matts.

Anyway, I guess the whole point of this post is that artwork and photos really add life to a home, and the way you matt these pieces can really make them stand out. A simple matt can take a stock poster or print from ho-hum to special and fantastic. And it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. You can make a matt out of a piece of colored cardboard, or cover a corregated cardboard matt with fabric scraps (or just leave it and use the corregated texture). Craft paint can make a white matt into any color you want. Just have fun and make your house beautiful.

p.s. Here's another inspiration photo of mine from Family Circle magazine. I love the bright, skinny frames. I haven't done this yet, but I am looking for a place in my home where something like this would work.

Inspiration: Colored frames with white matts from Family Circle