Well, as promised in yesterday’s post, I’m ready to share about my Sunday project that flopped. Oh joy…

Remember how I have been working on slowly fixing up my nightstand(salvaged from my great-grandparents’ house, which burned a few years ago)?

painted nightstand

To refresh, there are posts about it here, here, and here

Well, I wanted to stain the top surface, which I left unpainted to show the damage from the fire and smoke, to match our new dressers.

IMG_3356

So, on Sunday, I set up shop in our basement storage room and got to work.

 

I wiped the surface clean to remove any dust, but the stain just didn’t stick…like at all.nightstand top

So, I carried the nightstand back upstairs and out to the garage, where I went after it with the palm sander.

Now, to clarify, the reason I didn’t sand it in the first place was because I wanted to preserve the ask marks from the fire, which I knew sanding would remove.

Still, I sanded it pretty thoroughly, both by hand and with the sander, which did remove a lot of the black ash, but I figured it would be worth it to get the top to that darker wood tone I was going for.

sanded nightstand top

So, I took it back downstairs, wiped all the dust off again and restained…

staining nightstand top

…only nothing happened, again. After I wiped it, off, of course. It looked so pretty and dark while the stain was sitting on the surface…

Well, not nothing, it did get darker around the edges, and in some cuts and scratched on the surface, as well as around the edge of the veneer that was still left on the top.

nightstand top stained 1

But not on the actual light part I was hoping to stain. Dangit.

Hubs says it’s because it’s made with some sort of pressed wood that has a lot of glue in it, and stain won’t stick to glue.

It’s still cool, but I’m a little sad I lost a lot of the ash…although it’s maybe better for our lungs this way, and it is still “uniquely damaged,” which I like because it tells its story that way.

nightstand top stained 2

We do maybe have a Plan C, which is to see if we can find a tinted glaze or “clear” coat to go over the top of it…but depending on the price, I may decide to just seal it with the varnish we already have and be done with it.

What do you think? Advice or suggestions? Ever had a project that flopped? How did you drop back and punt? (As my dad would say…)

2 Thoughts on “A Pain to Stain”

  • Hi! My name is Linda. I’m new to the blogging community! My husband and I recently bought a house. Ours had some good renovating done to it before we moved in so we haven’t even needed to paint (although my husband would prefer bright colorful walls to my preference of neutrals). I tend to lean toward the more “rustic” style, so naturally I’m a fan of the way your nightstand is looking. 🙂 I do think one coat of some kind of tinted varnish might be nice just to give it a little more warmth. It’s so cool that you were able to salvage furniture from your grandparents home. What a cool story! I look forward to seeing more of your projects as they come up! 🙂

    • Hi Linda! Welcome to the blogosphere! And thanks for the input on the nightstand…I’m starting to like it more, although I’m hoping we can find a tinted varnish to darken it a little…
      Thanks for the comment!

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