The ugly dresser completed...

Hello stranger! Time has gotten away from me. I've been visiting my dad, working on an epic piece of furniture and focusing on my daughter as it's the school hols.

I'm halfway through the kitchen, so it's a perfect time to wander off and do something else. A kitchen break. I was itching to finish the ugly dresser.

So I did. Ta daa!

Let me remind you how it started out...

It didn't fit the wall, see how it cuts accross the door frame?

The top was not looking good.

I wasn't loving the plywood back or the black shelves.

But I LOVED the paintwork. (What was left of it.) It really was love at first sight with this piece. All the problems with it could be fixed.

I put a new tongue and groove back on the cupboard section. Much better than the plywood. And although it's inside the cupboard and no one sees it, I couldn't leave it looking so new.

I stained the wood with a mixture of tea and thinned down black acrylic paint. Much better.

I scraped and sanded the top, not too much as I didn't want to ruin the beaten up finish. I cut sections off the sides and top cornice so it fit my space perfectly. I sanded and stained the cut edges so it didn't look newly cut.

Halfway through, it was looking better but still needed a tongue and groove back for the top section and I needed to lose that black paint.

There was no simple way to do this. I painted all the paintwork, the black and the cream, very carefully, so that it would all be the same colour. I had to paint around each and every flaked of piece as I didn't want to lose that! This piece really was a labour of love.

 

I dark waxed it all so the new paint looked original.

wood bleached top

I used wood bleach on the top as I love the super pale look. (Did you know that using wood bleach and tongue and grooving something are two of the most fun things to do on the planet? )

The new tongue and groove back was stained darker and then also bleached to match the top.
Then I put it all together. I really wasn't sure about the wood finish behind the shelves. I thought I might paint over it.
But when the china was all in place, I loved it. I think that the china stands out more against wood than it would do against a painted surface and I'm so thrilled with the way it all matches up.

So here's the before...

And now...

Right then, better get on with that kitchen...

Link

Experimenting with wood bleach...

All righty roo, I just know you're all desperate to know how the wood bleach is working out. What do you mean, you're not? You're reading the wrong blog then. Because this is what I have discovered thus far!

I bought a 2 part wood bleach as apparently this is best for taking the natural colour out of the wood. There are other products that are more suitable for removing wood dye or water staining.

Here's what I'm using:

 Because my table is old and has been well used, I have had to thoroughly remove any wax from the surface by scrubbing it with fine wire wool and white spirit. And then I had a little panic and did it all over again. Just to make sure.

The problem I have is that there are some grease marks which have not lifted out. They have penetrated into the pine.

Can you see them?

I wanted to see how the bleach would work on these areas, so on the table leg where I removed the wax, I smeared a fingertip dipped in olive oil. 

Then I applied part A of the bleach.

(This leg will be painted over so it's perfect to experiment on.)

Bleach part A is on the darker areas of the picture. I left the middle dry for a colour comparison. At this point the bleach treated bits look darker because they're wet. I didn't apply it as liberally as I might on a flat table top as it was running. I let that sit for 10 mins. It said 10-20 mins but I'm impatient.

I did the second coat with part B and saw an almost immediate lightening. You're supposed to leave it for 2 hours. After one and a half hours I wanted to go to bed and the wood didn't seem to have lightened any further so I cleaned it off with a cloth and water.

Here's the result when it dried:

As you can see, the oil spot hasn't bleached. Hmm....
There is a difference in the bleached areas. It's not as big as I was hoping for. This could be because I didn't apply as liberally as the instructions suggested. Also the picture is not great as it was taken at night.

The picture below might be better to show the lightened areas. 

This picture might be just as bad actually.

So what to do about those grease spots? After 5 mins of net surfing I read that lighter fluid can get them out. Tracking that down was a bit tricky.
And really, I think I may have killed a few brain cells, even though the window was open wide, but I can't see much difference after using that. If any.

So I'm embracing imperfection and going ahead with the wood bleach anyway. Apparently you can even do it twice if it's not light enough the first time around.

So stay tuned for the next gripping instalment of 'adventures with wood bleach' and I should have a pale scrubbed pine table top to share with you next time.

If you think I'm being a bit half arsed and slow about this, let me tell you I am not! The white spirit needs a couple of days to disappear before you can apply the bleach. And the quest for lighter fluid delayed me further.

Plus I have been living with a great fear that the TV people will phone and say, ''Can we pop round tomorrow?'' so I have been painting the hallway furiously to remove all tiny hand prints and  even painting skirting boards! Because telly folk care about these things. Probably.

 Linking with Funky Junks Party Junk