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Monday, March 5

Progress on the Main Floor Bathroom

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This is where we left off . . .
I've been working on staining the half-bath
cabinet a darker shade to match the
Pottery Barn mirror
{a replacement for the contractor's mirror
that came with the house.}
My house has a lot of oak.
My goal: to down-play the grain &
make this vanity look less "oak-ey".

The main obstacle?
We have snow on the ground outside
& it's way too cold to ventilate!

So that means no stinky stains please!
I decided to give water-based products a try.

Guess what - they didn't smell AT ALL &
they worked so great.
WAHOO!
That's the good news.

The bad news is that sanding is the worst.
I've never had to sand anything down to the
bare wood before & I thought 
MY ARMS WOULD FALL OFF!
{Even with my hubby's electric sander.}
Once the wood was sanded,
I used a pre-stain conditioner.


The dark areas, above, are where I had
just begun to stain - so you can see
the raw wood there too. {I'm very proud of it!}

It took several coats of 
Minwax "Toffee" stain to get the 
cabinet to this color . . .
The stain was topped 2 coats of satin water-based
polyurethane.
This was my first staining project &
I LOVE IT!
For about $20 I have a 
whole new look!

12 comments:

  1. I tagged you in my new post! Check it out: http://keepitkrafty.blogspot.com/2012/03/tagged-im-it.html

    -Jazmine
    keepitkrafty.blogspot.com

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  2. LOVE the darker finish. I've been changing some of the lighter woods in our home to darker. We have a lot of wood trimming though, so it might be quite a slow process. This is lovely.
    Love the pic w/David Archuleta. :)

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  3. Great work - and the darker wood finish looks very classy!


    Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
    Hope you have a fabulous week!
    Jill @ Creating my way to Success
    http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

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  4. The cabinet looks great! This was all I needed to see to go forward with the idea of putting darker stain on the builder oak cabinets in our new house. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  5. Beautiful job! I love the new darker tone!

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  6. Great job. We are currently doing a powder room makeover - new fixtures and new paint. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. The darker color looks great. Thanks for leaving your info on my bathroom reveal at www.totallylaurenamber.com. I'm glad I can follow your great blog now.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by to take a peek Lauren. AND welcome aboard. I'm trying to get to 600 followers - so I'm very grateful!

      Warmly, Michelle

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  8. Looks great! :) If you do try the "Monica Method" let me know. Thanks for visiting my blog- yours is darling and I'll continue to visit. <3

    -Monica

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for looking at mine Monica. I'm glad you like it. The weather is turning cold, so I'll probably wait until next summer to try staining again. BUT when I do, I'll let you know. I'll be back to see you as well. Great to "meet" you!

      Warmly, Michelle

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