For the past three and a half months, we have heard so many stories from locals of memories made in our house over the years. It holds a place in the history of Thomaston Street and this town. We’ve heard tales of fearless kids climbing out onto the roof, the day Gyme discovered a stained glass window in the upstairs attic, hosted weddings and baby showers, wild hot tub parties, sharing a home with several other families when it was a duplex… but my favorite are the ones of people always feeling welcomed in the house.
As far as the house renovation goes, every room needs something, and most need everything. I feel like we are stewards of this historic home, and I want to make sure everything is done in a way that honors the legacy of the house. When visualizing each space, we thought of future years of memories being made with family and friends. I thought of the tales I wanted told in fifty years, just like the stories we’ve heard. Thank you for letting us share this journey with you, and one day, we hope to have you come visit and make a new memory or two!
This post is a little different than the rest. I intended to post a “fun post” on my birthday last week, but like most things when you are on a time crunch, it goes wrong. The original stain I picked was too shiny and not dark enough. Then the drying time was MUCH longer than the stain can said. And so on, and so on… for about three days, but in the end, I could not be happier!
Our demo crews are still working hard and getting a lot accomplished—more on that later in the week—but today, here is my (week-late) fun, just-because birthday post!
A couple of weeks ago, I shared a photo on my social media accounts of the design inspiration for the future living room:
In this room, I pictured my brother and sister reclined in comfortable leather chairs after eating too many deviled eggs at Thanksgiving. I imagined my in-laws sitting on the sofa and watching our niece, Piper, and the twins play with Legos on the floor. I could see a crowd of people during one occasion or another sitting, conversing and enjoying each others company. I have been searching for just the right coffee table to be the center of this room. Luckily, a few weeks ago one magically appeared on Facebook Marketplace!
Josh and I drove to Macon and much to my pleasure, I loved it even more in person! The details were a nice bonus and the size was perfect! The finish was slightly different and outdated than I wanted, so I set out to find a solution.
The first thing I usually reach for when changing the finish on a piece of furniture is my trusted CitriStrip or my handy dandy sander. Recently, during our last visit to South Dakota, my talented father-in-law shared another option that I figured I’d give try. To remove old stain, he suggested using Antique Furniture Refinisher by Minwax and a very fine steel wool.
As soon as I first smelled the refinisher, I knew I would want to complete this project outside in a very well-ventilated area—it is STRONG.
With protected hands, I slowly started using a saturated steel wool and begin making gentle circles on the wood. The stain came right off! I did find that I needed to change steel wool often for best results.
At the beginning, I was worried about the table being veneer, but figured if this method didn’t work, I could always paint it; however, with a little bit of elbow grease the results are amazing. I love this product!
Once it was completely bare, I used Minwax PolyShades Royal Walnut in satin. I applied each coat with a brush and gave it a light sand (and cleaning) between coats.
I could not be happier with the end result.
As always, thank you for taking the time to stop by! I’ll see you over on Instagram and Instagram Stories and back on the blog later this week!
-Kathryn