Aside from yesterday, which I spent gossiping with Jeanine, looking at housewares, and drinking coffee, I have spent the week sanding and staining my desk–I finished sanding the drawers on Tuesday and applied my first coat of stain to them that day as well. I also sanded down the top of my coffee table–on one of his first nights over, Jason pulled my scented oil bath and body works doodad out of the wall and set it down on the table so he’d have a place to plug in his laptop. Hours later, I noticed that oil had leaked out and onto the table, and when I went to wipe it away, it took ALL of the finish with it. I was pretty upset, but the table had to be refinished anyway as a hot white pizza box had left a big mark on it a few months earlier, so this wasn’t the first finish ding, though it was the impetus to finally fix it instead of looking at it and mumbling that it really ought to be refinished someday.

Wood stain is pretty magical–I’ve been using a water-based ebony stain as I want the desk to be near-black when I’m done–but it’s really quite remarkable how different the stain looks on different wood. On the oak of the desk, it immediately picked up red and amber qualities, making it a rich warm brown. On the pine (I’m fairly certain it’s pine from the smell it released when I was sanding it) of the coffee table, the stain immediately turned it a cooler brown-grey. I am six coats in on the drawers and five coats on the table. The drawers I am going to continue to stain until they turn black or very close to black, and I estimate that I am perhaps two to three coats away from that. I’m hoping to stop on the table before it turns black, however, there is a part that has been more resistant to the stain and I’m going to keep coating it until it’s even, regardless of how dark it gets.

The gunmetal bird skull drawer pulls arrived in the mail today and they are AWESOME. I can’t wait until the desk is all done and put back together, because it’s going to look amazing. I can see why people get hooked on refinishing furniture!

I just spent an hour at home depot talking with an employee about refinishing the desk I bought a long time ago with intentions of refinishing. Eventually in the new place I’d like to use it as a makeup vanity instead of a computer desk because it could amply store my buttloads of makeup and be less awkward to use than the dresser I’ve been using. Since I’ve got a ton of free time now, what better time to do some of the projects I’d been putting off, right?

I brought in one of the drawers so he could determine what wood it was made from, and brought photos of the damaged areas to best determine how to go about fixing them–apparently I got the score of the century when I bought it as I got it dirt cheap and it’s oak which is a spendier hardwood. The employee mentioned liking the hardware on the desk and I scoffed, saying I wanted to replace it, but apparently I can sell the hardware for something like thirty bucks a pop on craigslist because you can’t get hardware like it anymore. If that’s true, I’ll be glad to sell it instead of just chucking it like I’d intended. I don’t think what’s on there now will go with the ebony finish I’m applying, and I’m thinking I’d like something a little more modern on there regardless. Or awesome. Like bird skulls.

So over the next couple of days, I’m going to be sanding and staining–and, apparently, if I don’t use proper ventilation, according to the home depot employee, I’ll also be “talking to Elvis”. It’s nice to have projects to work on! And maybe I’ll get some sandwich-making tips from the King.