Rustic farmhouse table legs...

Well this has taken forever. It didn't help that I got struck down with tonsillitis! I thought it was a wintry illness for children. How wrong I was. You can absolutely get it when you're 43 in the middle of a heatwave. I think it must have been the stress of the arduous table lightening process that got to me. That and a school trip to the woods. In an un-air conditioned coach. It surely was a disease just waiting to happen.

 Anyway, I have scraped myself out of my sick bed (Sick bed? Fat chance!) to bring you the latest in the ongoing saga of our dining table. I think this is part four.Yes I probably do need to get out more.

Here are the legs before...

 

  ...and after...

...up close...

I tried some 'actual colours' and some blended techniques and it just looked pants. (But I really did try.) This was light brown home made furniture paint (plaster of paris) and  just emulsion over that. I forgot to sugar soap (slaps wrist) but I got away with it and I'm happy with the result. It looks a bit beachy.

I read on someones blog first that they always do the legs or body of a piece before they do the wooden top. I don't get this. I always do the tops first. You never know exactly what colour it's going to be until it's done and then you can choose your paint accordingly. The creamy colour here is ON DECK by Wilkinsons which was a perfect colour to go with the top and covered nicely in one coat. I did the top coat of the legs with just 2 tester pots costing £1 each. Bargain! Those tester pots go a long way.

I think I've decide on a wall colour which is a bit more sophisticated than the Pale Powder F&B that's there. And cheaper.

The plumber is coming to take off the radiator this week to allow me to get all the painting done. Then the floors and skirting boards can go in. And won't that make a difference? I cannot wait to say goodbye to the black floor!

I still have a lot to do. You're going to be so fed up of my dining room before I'm done! Back soon with dining room lighting...

If you want to see how I got the top so pale check my previous posts.

Wood bleach results...and a scrubbed pine table top

Well, I've been having a very interesting time in my chemistry lab otherwise known as the dining room. I'm pleased to report that there was no chemical reaction involving white spirit, lighter fluid and wood bleach and that I'm still here to tell the tale. (Don't try this at home kids! I left ample time for all sovents to evaporate before applying the next one!)

Let me remind you of the lovely table I started out with and accidentally ruined...

Good bye lovely patina!

Oops. But it is very clean now. That's got to count for something on a dining table?

Time to bleach!
I was pretty concerned during the bleaching process. It looked very patchy. Some areas had crusty white flaky bits. Others appeared unchanged. I applied it so liberally that there were puddles! I thought I'd stuffed it completely up.

But after one treatment with a 2 part wood bleach...

Oh yeah! Much better!  But you remember my experimentation on the oil smeared table leg?

After one treatment: oil can be seen...

 

Well, I experimented further and did a second bleach treatment on the lower section of this leg...

(Top: 1 bleach treatment. Middle: left alone. Bottom: 2 treatments)

And would you believe it? The oil spot is GONE! Yay! This is good news for the grease marks on my table top!

So seeing as I'm an all or nothing kind of girl, I thought I'd do another bleach treatment on the top because any wax or varnish will darken it...( you have to wait 2 hours between treatments.)

To be honest, I couldn't see a huge difference after the second treatment. I then used my table leg test zone and applied clear wax on one area and clear varnish on another area. This was hugely dissapointing. Both of them darkened the pine and brought out the orange again.

I realised that in order to get the paleness I was after, I would have to use paint which is exactly what I thought I could do without, having used the bleach. I made up a wood wash of F&B Cornforth White and water and applied this. You have to do this in the direction of the grain and drag your brush from one side of the table to the other with no breaks. If you keep lifting your brush you get a patchiness that looks like a bad paint job rather than an old bleached table top.

After the paint wash had dried I was REALLY pleased!

and up close...

Next I had to make another decision. Wax or varnish. Wax looks best as the wood still looks like wood. But I used this on my last dining table and it didn't stand up to grease stains. It's just not relaxing to have people over for Sunday lunch and have to scream at them if they spill the gravy on the table. Varnish can look very plasticcy and can sometimes detract from the wood. But it offers far greater protection.

Here's what I use- both. First a very thin coat of water based matt varnish following the wood grain. Then an incredibly light sand and one more thin coat dragging the brush from one side of the table to the other again, without lifting. This gives you a flawless smooth finish with no patchiness but you've got to work fast as it dries fast! If you're wanting a pale finish, NEVER use oil based varnish as it's always more yellow and darkens further over time.

This is what I use.

After the varnish dried I moved onto wax. I used the darkest wax I had. The table top was beautifully pale but also very new looking! I want it to look like an antique farmhouse table so it needed dark wax to add age and character. (All this obsessing with paleness and now DARK wax? Trust me, it works!)

If you use a matt varnish and wax, the wood still looks very much like wood. The matt varnish takes the wax beautifully. It gives you great protection against spills. (I'll still have to use coasters and mats for hot things.)

I also gave it a sound thrashing, firstly with a lingerie bag filled with screws, then a lingerie bag filled with teaspoons. Just to stop this looking all perfect and new. Hopefully.

Blooming heck, this is an absurdly long process! And I'm not even onto the legs yet!
Want to see the completed table top? Is anyone still out there and reading this? Does anyone care?

Sooo, the whole process without dark wax...

and with dark wax...

...just a bit older looking.

Ta daa! So today I'm hoping to start on the legs. I want a crusty old finish. I'm not entirely sure of all the colours I need.
Come back and see the completed table soon. Hopefully!

P.S. I have not been paid by Ronseal or Rustins (the bleach) for this post. I just want to tell you the products I used.

Funky Junks Party Junk

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

Table trauma...

Remember I showed you my dining table?

With it's lovely aged patina? Well, I waxed it and it looked a bit orange. I hated it. So I wet some wire wool with white spirit and scrubbed the wax off. It turns out that lovely aged patina was mostly dirt. (Eew!) It all scrubbed away leaving a rather unsplendid looking newish pine table.

Oops.

 

I've killed it.
It dried paler but it still looks orange to me.

Table leg before

Table leg after

What I'd like is a Scandinavian looking pale scrubbed pine table top. Like this:

(This is rougher than my table)

I could do this in several ways.
Firstly with a paint wash to add paleness with the wood grain still showing through. I did this on my last table. Second, I could use a white wood dye which would penetrate the wood further than paint sitting on the top. And third, I could use a wood bleach to actually take the natural colour out of the wood. And this third method is what I'm leaning towards. I like the idea of taking out the colour rather than adding whiteness. More honest.

I have never used wood bleach before. To get the best result apparently I need a two part wood bleach which can be tricky to use and the surface is large so it's going to be hard to get an even coverage.

I was hoping this table would be our 'forever' table. If this goes wrong, it will just be another one of the many tables that come and go from this house. Boo hoo.

Today was my 43rd birthday. It's been a perfect day incorporating a boot sale and a bit of table scrubbing. What more could I ask for?

The greatest gift I ever received was exactly seven years ago tomorrow. A slightly late birthday present.

So the bunting is out for double celebrations.

Tonight I shall be catching up with the rest of the country by watching the first episode of the new series of Luther. Cannot wait!

Dining room...

The dining room is the next big project on the agenda.
Here's a before shot:

(when I say 'before', I have already removed the metal curtain track and put up the pole, painted the orange smoke stained ceiling white, stripped the lumpy wallpaper and smoothed over the walls, we also replaced the window and the radiator...)

See how the table is not centred in the room?  The light is in the centre.
This is because there was a door in a very stupid place. If we moved the table to the centre of the room you wouldn't be able to close the door. But we have never once closed the door in all the years we have been here. So, I've removed the door. 

The room feels so much bigger! You can see three walls now from this angle. The table is centred. There is space around the table. I've filled the hinge holes in the door frame so it's now an opening rather than a door frame.

The floor is covered in disgusting black tiles that were lurking under a dated green carpet. The wood floor is ready to be layed.

I'm going to paint the table legs and this is the colour scheme I'm leaning towards:

All three together! The table top is wonderful as it is. It's chunky, worn and warped.

I don't want anything too precious. I'm going for a rustic farmhouse look.

Speaking of not being too precious, I've been looking for a rug to go under the dining table. It'll add a bit of warmth to the room and alter the acoustics in there what with wooden floor and all wooden furniture. The flooring we have is a pale oak that is oiled, not lacquered. It shows grease marks from food that falls on it. It probably wouldn't be noticeable if we had a darker colour but it drives me mad. So another reason for needing a rug.

I like good quality and natural fibres but I didn't want to pay a fortune for a huge wool rug that will end up with bolognaise stains. So I kept my eyes peeled for a damaged rug. I saw a huge pale blue oriental rug at the flea market one day. It was £5 as it was bald in the middle. I regretted not buying it. It would have been perfect.

Some months later, I saw this one:

It's large, clean, pale, pure wool and the best quality. It has been eaten to death by moths. My husband didn't get it. He said we could spend a few hundred on a new rug. That wasn't the point. I didn't want a new rug that I would get stressed about if food fell on it or the cats scratched it. He doesn't like me stressing, so he caved and we got the rug. It was £30 so I get an expensive looking glamorous rug that is damaged and perfect to drop food on. Yay! You know it makes sense don't you?

Anyway, I spent ages steaming it to kill any remaining bugs. Then it went out in the sun for a day as that works too apparently. I haven't seen any moths yet...

The curtains will be replaced with floor skimming ones. I got some at a boot sale still in their packet for £5. The walls will probably go neutral as I'm using colour on the furniture.

The other end of the room has this pine dresser/ bookcase which will be painted:

...perhaps the same way as the table legs.

Then there's this window:

...which will go on the wall above it and that shelf will go elsewhere. I'm going to do something to it... not entirely sure what yet.

And I found a plate rack, just what I was after, with the bars so people can't knock the plates off...useful in a small room.

It's had a bad paint job (not by me) but I can rectify that. It came from eBay. (As did the dresser and the table.)

The light will be changed and I think there's something in the loft I can use. It'll be so nice to have a light centred over the table and it means it can go a bit lower. That's good as we don't have high ceilings. 

So that's the plan! Subject to change. The use of colour on the legs is scary, but I don't want everything to be white. (I think.) I'm going to try colour anyway. I can always go over it. And probably will. I'm slightly colourphobic. If that's a thing.
I've got my work cut out for me with all of this. First step: flooring. Obviously we get a man in for that as it's done in a day and perfect. I'd take six weeks and it wouldn't be perfect. Some things are worth paying extra for!

Oh and Sports Day? I'd been talking to the school, talking to Constance, not knowing what to do for the best, all totally upsetting. She didn't do the long distance as that was optional for the whole school. Which is nice. But she did fine in the race she ran. So we are not ever having that conversation again. It's not just her, there's a huge range of non athletic kids, and it's right that they all do their best. I entered the mums race and came last on purpose as a shining example of ''who cares?''
I waved and blew kisses to Constance as I ran by. Apparently if you really embarrass your children they actually beg you not to run next time.
Bring it on.

It's curtains I'm afraid...

I suddenly realised it's half term next week and I was meant to have made some curtains to take up to York for my brothers kitchen. Gah! I hate making curtains. The maths makes my head spin.
Here's the fabric I chose.

The floor still makes my heart skip a beat :)

Very colourful. I'm hoping they will tie in with his kitchen that he replaced last year.
The straight lines are very helpful for cutting. I've done one curtain and there are two more to go...

Do you see our curtains in the background? They are Laura Ashley (via ebay) and have had the hems pinned up since we got them. My excuse was, I didn't know where the flooring would come to, so I couldn't shorten them. Well, the flooring is done so I have no excuses left now.
They're coming down and being washed and shortened from the top so I don't have to faff about with the hems on the curtains and the linings. Tedious job. But not as tedious as making them from scratch.

I'm also thinking ahead to the dining room makeover that's on the horizon. We have some electrical work to do first, then more wood flooring to go down and then I can sort that room out. I've got some cream curtains stashed away and I'm thinking of replacing the pencil pleat curtain tape with this:

Sorry this is a truly awful picture

Smocked curtain tape! Isn't that pretty? I have to figure out if it's right for the curtains I have; I read that it's best for lightweight curtains and mine aren't. And I'm hoping it's easy to use...

Also thinking ahead to the dining room, I would love this:

  

French style furniture. But my husband says no. We are sticking with chunky pine but painted. It'll work with what we've got, which is a large pine bookcase/ dresser that will be painted. I did replace that with a french style dresser that I painted but I couldn't get half as much in it so it had to go. It was 99p from ebay but my books didn't fit into it as it was more of a display cabinet.

The french one

So that bit the dust. The pine one came back in.

 A bit of primer adhesion experimentation has occurred...

We also have:

...but with grungier legs and a paler top, but it's too long for the room (we were going to take a wall down but not anymore) so I've been tracking down a shorter one.
It's a bit ridiculous, the amount of furniture that passes through this house. We moved in with 3 tables, one is now in the garden and two were sold. We bought another, decided not to keep it, bought another (the one we have now that's too big) and last week bought a smaller one that's too small. You'd think we don't know how to use a tape measure! I think I'm guilty of repeatedly finding something lovely at a bargainous price on ebay and convincing myself it will be fine. When it's not.

I want to get it right and have furniture that fits the room (it's not big) and is worthy of the new flooring! Thank goodness for ebay. It means a mistake is not a costly mistake! Luckily it's all secondhand in the first place so I'm not losing money.

I'm also thinking of a plate rack like this in the dining room.

 I have some pretty plates just waiting.

Seeing as we're drowning in tables and chairs at the moment, and everything has stopped for curtain making, I've done nothing more with my Ikea step stool. Sorry.

Perhaps after we return from Yorkshire for half term? I'll take my camera so I can show you my brothers curtains in situ.
IF I finish them.

Happy half term!