DIY Design: Nesting Tables

The last couple of week's DIY design have been was a bust because I was oh so sick. But this week I finally have those nesting tables that you saw so long ago. So this week on got on that project and dragged the nesting tables down to my dark hole in the basement.

They started out like this-



So I found a great tutorial on Centsational Gal who showed me just what I needed to do to stain something. In fact, I followed it note for note with the exception of the wood conditioning- I skipped that step. I just felt like I didn't need it.

To put it simple:

1. sand your table ( two of these tables had already been stripped-we'll get to that in a minute)
2. using a foam brush I brushed on my stain-going with the grain.
3. I gave them some time to dry-almost three days. Then I sealed them.

Now, let me tell you my difficulties.

So that little pedestal table-it was the piece that wasn't stripped- that made things difficult. I had to sand the top for a long time to get to the wood grain. I didn't bother with the pedestal. I just didn't care too much honestly and it was in good shape so I left it as is. But, the stain didn't take too well. So I had to wipe a lot of it off.

I also resolved myself to the fact that some of the areas-i.e the legs-would be darker than others. Not really an issue for me. I didn't mind that the coverage was a little thicker in certain places. 

Another problem I encountered was that the basement was just too cold. I had to bring all the tables upstairs to the kitchen to sit overnight and finally they dried. Then I sealed them outside on the deck and they were finished.

So originally I had plans for each of the tables in this set-scattering them all over the house-but now I've changed my mind. I'm using them as they are for an end table in the living room.






I love that they are so dark. I used the 'red chestnut' shade and it matches perfectly with our other furniture in the living room.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! 

xoxo
K