The Sugar Maple O'hearn dinning table tutorial

This project was my friend Jessica's table. It is clearly marked as an O'hearn table made of Sugar Maple.

 From my research I believe it was sold in 1958 so it has sustained itself for over 50 years. It needed to be completely stripped and sanded and then finished. I was really sad to take this beautiful patina off but there were small bits of damage that made it necessary to sand it all down. Luckily in some years the patina will come back. This wood was gorgeous though!! So much ribboning in the wood. I'm sad because photos just don't do the ribboning justice. Anyway so this is what I started with.

Here are the bits of damage that made it necessary to sand it all the way down.

Here it is with the leaves hanging down.

 I unscrewed the two hanging leaves and flipped the table over to start on the legs. The legs were the most time consuming part of the project because of all the round parts and details.  I started with a paint stripper, a really smelly one.

 This was really messy. I used my ventilation mask and chemical gloves.

I covered the under part of the table with plastic. 

I scraped with a wire brush and with my 5 in 1 scrapper. 

 This is what it looked like after all that chemical and scraping, it was a long process.

 Then after that I sanded it all smooth with a 60 grit, then 100 then 150.

 Then I flipped the table over and sanded the top and leaves with this:

I love this sand paper, it takes the finish off quickly.

 Then I went over them all with 100 grit then 150 to prep for the finish. I prepped the bottom of the two hanging leaves the same say because you will see the bottom of the table anytime the leaves are down ( I learned this the hard way with one of my hanging leaf tables)

 This table was a lot of sanding, I always use a facemask or bandanna when sanding to keep the dust out of me. I sanded everything down with 150 again and used my shopvac to get all the dust off. Then I used my hand to take the final layer of dust off.

I made sure to sand a small section under the middle leaf to test if Jessica wanted to use some stain or just Waterlox. Here is the photo:

The stain (top) was the same color as the waterlox (bottom)! Except the waterlox brought out the beautiful ribboning and made the wood look amazing while the stain seemed to just make it the same color yet dull. So she chose straight waterlox, I agreed fully here. So I got to work on it again.

 I used a foam brush for each application. the first 2 coats really seeped into the wood.  I then did 4 more coats making sure to wait at least 24 hours between each coat and sanding it light between every 2 coats with a 320 grit sandpaper, just with my hand, no more sanders used.

 After the 6th coat I let it cure for 7 days and voila it was finished. I love how it turned out. My husband wants me to find this exact table and do one for us. The ribboning in the wood was seriously gorgeous.

and here are the glam shots in my front room.

 And there it is! I would say if you find a peice of furniture made of sugar maple. GET IT. So beautiful!

Miriam

Painting my trunk tutorial

 I started with this. It had a few scratched on it my not many.

So I got out my Zinsser primer and a foam brush and painted the whole thing.

I propped a piece of wood inside so I could 

get the whole thing painted without painting it shut

The next part is vital. I let it sit for five days without touching. 

You really have to let the paint cure on the metal or it will easily scratch off.

Then I started taping it off where I wanted the blue spray paint.

I used painters tape that had some kind of special edge seal or something

I just used newspaper in between all the tape

On the thin edges I just needed tape 

Then I propped a piece of wood between the top 

and the bottom so that the spray paint wouldn't get in the trunk when I sprayed it.

I used a dark blue green in the Rustoluem brand,

 its the best brand of spray paint in my opinion with good coverage. 

It also adheres very well to metal.

Here is what the back looked like.

 I let it dry for about a half hour and then peeled off the tape and newspaper. 

I was afraid the tape would peel up the paint but it didn't!

Then it looked like this. You can't really tell but this is just primer. So I choose a high gloss white latex paint and a foam roller and taped off some of the edges and carefully painted it. I had to use my little paint brush of the smaller details but it didn't take too long.

Then I waited a day for it to dry and placed it in my house where I wanted it. 

Its finished and just as I envisioned it!

 It hasn't even scratched yet. I am pretty sure this is because of the Zinnser paint adhering so well to the metal. I had no idea it would work so well but I am very pleased it did. Now when I see these trunks at the thrift store I will know what can be done with them!

 Miriam

Brass Chest Reveal

I started with a brass colored chest which I thought was pretty all by itself but my husband did not so I used my brain and thought of what I wanted. Then I read on the Zinsser primer can that it works with metal so I thought this was the perfect test.

and then I ended up with this!! 

I love it now, a little elbow grease and its custom to what I wanted. 

Miriam

I'll post the how to later

Zoo or Ball pit very pinteresting

So my friend Kelly really wanted to make a stuffed animal zoo. They are all over pinterest, at least sort of all over pinterest. There are hundreds of different ways to do it. Thats the beauty of this project you make it to fit your space and needs. All the instructions on the web were different. So we kind of made our own using other peoples advice. We looked at the pictures here and then went on our merry way. I wanted to make this on a budget so I went to Home depot and sat in the wood section with a piece of paper and calculator and figured it all out, then I went and told Kelly how much it would cost  (about $20) and then I made the mistake of going to Lowes to buy the wood, there were different sizes, so I then sat there with a paper and calculator and figured it out again

I bought for 2 zoo's. We wanted them 5 feet tall and a two foot box all around. Warning this is huge!  We didn't realize how huge it was! Its ok though there is room for growth.

I would recommend but you don't need:

 gloves when painting

music in your ears

a fan if its hot 

a level

You will need:

a drill

a drill bit for your screws

some kind of finish (paint or stain I guess you could go all natural)  

We primed ours with zinnser oil based because we only wanted to use one coat of white latex instead of 6 to cover all the wood.

a saw for straight lines (if you don't get the guy at the store to cut it for you)

sand paper

100 feet of rope (if your making it huge like we did) We chose pretty colors.

 I bought 2 1x2x8 and cut them down to:

(8) 2 foot pieces of  1x2x8 

I bought 4 1x3x8  and had them cut down to:

(4) 2 foot pieces 

(4) 5 foot pieces

 Then these:

There were terrific!! You will need a square drill bit with these, they didn't split the wood and went in easily.

We used 12 1 1/2 inch

We used 24 2 inch size when attaching the squares we made to the 5 foot pieces just for more support

The screw eyes were for attaching the ropes we used 60 of these .99 for 14 at walmart

We started by cutting the pieces to size (you can ask the guy at the store to do this)

and then sanding all the rough parts with a 150 grit. Then we zinnser primered them:

Then we let them cure for 24 hours

Next we predrilled 5 small holes (we wanted the gaps in the rope 4 inches apart) in each of the 2 foot pieces (the ugly side) and hand screwed in the eye screws which wasn't hard at all

 Then we started piecing them together the 2 foot pieces were made into boxes:

We just used one screw on each edge and it worked well.

we put the 1x3 box on the bottom because it was heavy and we wanted it sturdy. 

Then we attached the first 5 foot peice and screwed it in with 2 screws and then put the other 3 in.

Then we shimmied the next box down to the half way mark (2 and a half feet) and used the level and screwed it to the other 5 foot pieces. A level might seem tedious but we did out first one without it and it looked crooked to us so we had to fix it. 

Then we put the top on. We made sure to use the level and screwed each corner in (if you cant tell the boxes go on the outside of the 5 foot pieces). 

Then you are ready for your rope! 

We chose colored rope because we were keeping them white. For this size we needed 100ft of rope! We bought two of the 50 foot kind and it was about $7 for both. Then you thread your rope. You are going to want to just continuiously weave it through so you only have to tie 2 knots at the end.

 Then you have your zoo! Here are our zoos together, you can see the beginning of the stuffed animals, we through a fat little panda in there.

 Here is is on its own again.

Now when my husband came home from work that day he was like "That thing is huge, we should use it for our giant bouncy balls. I thought that was a fantastic idea because they really dont fit anywhere so here they are!

 So instead of a zoo we have a ball pit and I love it. Kelly's is a zoo though and I will hopefully grab a picture of it at her house!!

The end!

Miriam