Mandy's Misadventures in Stripping

Did the title get your attention? It was meant to... but I think we all know the kind of stripping I'm talking about.

So about 2 weeks ago, I took my Grandmother's table in an effort to refinish it for her. The table was a bit odd because it always felt a little sticky. My thought was that it had a varnish rather than a stain on it. It seems I was right. Luckily, it being varnished helped while I was stripping it. In my experience, varnish strips much more readily than stain does.

one side stripped, pre-sanding.

I was so pleased with myself. "This is going to be so easy!" I practically cackled. So after the stripping, I sanded down the same side. It looked lovely, such nice naked wood anxiously awaiting a stain.

post-sanding

Why did I only strip and sand one side at a time? Good question... because I didn't know which stain would match the varnish color. Since the pedestal of the table was the same varnish color, the table top had to match. So with one half of the table displaying the original varnish, I found that "provincial" was the correct stain to use (as you can see towards the top of the sanded half).

So then I stripped and sanded the other half of the table

see how easy the varnish stripped off?

After I sanded and cleaned the other half, I got busy on the stain... Only, the stain didn't take evenly. Aside from which, even after 2 days, it was still wet/sticky.

By this point, things were not going as easily as anticipated. So what did I do? I stripped again.

But nothing came up.

So I sanded... and EVERYTHING came up. Everything, as in, the entire layer of veneer that was on this table that I didn't know about until that very second. I stopped sanding when I noticed the dark spots.

"Oh shizzle" I thought... "I just ruined my Grandmother's table."

So that's where we stand right now. I didn't take any pictures of the ruined table, but I'm pretty sure it can't be saved... not for staining anyhow. I'm trying to convince the Gramma to take my table, but she's being ridiculous and wont agree to it. Although I don't think she truly understands that I don't care about my table, and if she has it, then I have an excuse to find a new one.

Anyway that's the story of my misadventures in stripping. Hopefully we will find an answer to this crisis on Friday when Gramma finally comes to see the extent of the damage done.

And while I'm here, I want to catch you up a few things:

1. the Blue house I was obsessing over has sold to someone else. Probably someone with far less vision. Tear...

2. The Pumpkin cinnamon rolls were just OK  I think maybe letting them rise overnight was a bad idea. They seemed a bit heavy for rolls.