A Sandy Saturday

Ya'll, I am in love...with an electric sander. As you might recall from my pretentiously long and rambling post from last week, Daddy loaned me his. It's a Black and Decker with the little bag that allegedly sucks up the errant dust.

Since I'm not stupid--not entirely, anyway--I first read the manual which is pretty basic. "Load the paper, grip the handle, press the 'on' button and let the sander do the work." (meaning, don't apply pressure) Naturally, having never used one before, I was a little hesitant about applying it to the drafting table or to the small chest  in the dining room. I did, however, have this small bookcase that used to live in the guest bedroom and now lives in MY bedroom.

It originally belonged to Daddy. He'd had it since before he and Mama married (I think) and it used to live next to his recliner in their house. I inherited it about eight years ago and it has moved with me everywhere since then.

As you can imagine, it's pretty beat up after all these years and three kids--not counting all my cousins and the two kids Mama babysat back in the 80's before she started working at the library. In particular, was this spot where Daddy always sat his glass/can of Pepsi for a couple decades.

To be an antique, it must be said that this piece isn't exactly good quality stuff. It's basically the same kind of cheap laminate/veneer press board stuff I've always bought. But I like the lines and the sentiment of it so I can't part with it. But it did need some work.

So I decided it would be my guinea pig for the electric sander.  Poor thing. It took me a while (and no, I don't have pics...boo!) but I did get it passable. A few notes on the sander, though...I couldn't get the dust collecting bag to stay on AND when it wasn't flying off it also wasn't collecting any dust. Thank goodness I had the good sense to do all this sanding outside! Also, it is LOUD and I had to use cotton balls to stuff my ears to keep from going deaf. BUT it worked so smooth and the paper was easy to switch out and I think I would marry it if such a thing were legal. I love anything that does all the hard work for me. ;-)

Now, here's where my lack of experience/knowledge comes in...

I seriously should have used wood filler of caulk or something over that bare patch of press wood. It would have made for a smoother finish AND it would have soaked up less primer. But hind sight being what it is...*shrug*

At any rate, I did get it primed and painted Saturday in between other projects and Libby snuggling. So here's the hastily shot this morning after...

It's not a perfect job at all. I keep finding spots I either missed or hit poorly. I don't know if it needed a thicker coat of primer--I used oil based--or if I am just a completely crappy painter.  Probably that last one. More touch-ups in store tonight, though. And before I call this project done, I've got to decide what to do about the legs. I'm torn between spray painting them and replacing them with something more modern. I already own some spray paint--brushed nickle and oil rubbed bronze, depending on which I decided to use--so I'm kinda leaning that way and making this a completely free project. (I already owned the black paint and the primer and all the brushes and stuff.)

After the successful use on this piece, I happily dragged the drafting table outside and set to work on sanding it. It took me a little longer and two different grit sandpapers, but I got it smooth and clean. Well, mostly clean. There's one spot of color that I could NOT get to come off and I didn't want to risk ruining the table so I left it.



hastily shot this morning

But you can't tell it from here so I'm hoping the stain will cover it.

Then, after working on the top for a while I realized that sanding the legs would not be an option. There's simply too much hardware connecting it all to get the sander in all the tiny spots. However, thanks to the Youngsters I had the brilliant idea that a two toned table wouldn't look bad. I plan to stain the top a dark walnut color and having seen the Youngster's new desk done with a dark walnut top and white cabinet bottom I decided that would be a fun look for this table. So I got busy priming those legs.

Oil based primer is a...well, rhymes with snitch. It works like magic mostly because it sticks to everything. Mostly, in my case, skin. Wouldn't be an issue if I weren't such a messy painter. But ya'll, I got to church yesterday and was still finding spots of primer on various places I rarely look--the back of my leg, the pinky toe on my right foot, the underside of my arm. I honestly don't know how it got on some of those places. My hands were the worst, but I managed to get them presentable looking. But picture me behind the sound booth ruthlessly scratching at dried primer on the heel of my foot (I was wearing flip flops and a short-ish skirt, of course) before church started and praying no one noticed.

Anyway, back to the table. It's difficult to fathom how many parts there are to the legs until you start priming/painting them. It took me a couple hours and some contortionist maneuvers to get to them all and I STILL managed to miss a bar and half a leg. And I didn't notice those missed spots until I was hastily photographing it this morning.

Awesome. So now I've got to drag the table back out and deal with the primer AGAIN. Good news, though, is I already love the two toned look and that's just with a sanded light wood surface and white poorly primed legs!

But, as if all that weren't enough work, I decided to fix up the corkboard/bulletin board in Libby's room. I bought some deep plum glossy spray paint and a fabric square with hopes to pretty it up.

Unfortunately, I don't have a before pic of it because I am lame. But to give you an idea of what I started with--I've had the thing since I was in junior high and it was filled with all sorts of scraps of my life from my high school/college years. Dusty as all get out and kinda fun but messy.

Oh wait! Here's a picture of it when it lived in the apartment a couple years ago! I hadn't changed anything but the location since then. See it hovering above the book case sort of behind the Barbies?

Yeah, a typical hodge podge of teen age stuff.

I'm trying to streamline Libby's room, though and make it less hodge podge and more clean and purposeful. Meaning, not junky. It's one small step in a large overhaul but it's a start.

Anyway, the fabric that I bought wasn't big enough to cover the whole thing so I temporarily covered it with a combo of graphic tissue paper and ribbon...

It's kinda fun looking like that, I think, but it actually photographs a little better than it looks in person. My original thought process is to over it in fabric and detail it with decorative nailhead trim. Maybe even add some padding to tuft it a bit. I still want it to be functional but also pretty. *shrugs* I'll head back to the fabric store someday and see if I can get a larger piece of fabric to finish it. Someday.

Needless to say, all that kept me pretty busy Saturday. Also needless to say, the DP was NOT happy with me. I had to share some extra bites of my lunch just to get her to speak to me.