It's time to roll up my sleeves and get dirty! Since it is winter time and mother nature hasn't decided what mood she will be in, it is really hard to tell if staining was going to work in such conditions. Luckily however there is plenty of time to think it over whilst I sanded. I bought a not so great brand of hand sander and got some random sand paper from the dollar tree. Not knowing exactly what I was doing I figured I would learn a thing or two along the way.
The sanding of each pallet took me anywhere from 20 minutes to and hour. It really does help to start out with good pallets. Be selective and only pick up clean, solid wood ones or ones that are rather smooth on the surface. The better the pallet the easier time you will have in sanding. The smoother the surface your able to achieve the better the stain will go on and the less you will need to use of it.
There are recommendations to use a wood sealer before sanding but for my project, it's not going to one day turn into antique furniture so I wasn't that concerned about it. At the end of the day I think it turned out nicely regardless.
STAIN
I chose to stick with the Kona stain on the rest of the project. It has such a rich color and can really be matched with a variety of fabrics and wood types. For the money and the size I prefer this Rustoleum Varathane wood stain.
The benefits:
For me this was so easy to use. A very small goes a long way and if your doing your project in the winter as I am, you will very quickly see when the temp has dropped to low to work. It is very thin at first but the colder the temp drops, the more it will take for the stain to go on. If this happens to you, stop and wait for another day. Stain needs to be somewhat warm to cure. So try to do this in the warmest driest place you can. Be sure the area is well ventilated, but that goes without saying. The other thing I dig about this stain is that it only really takes 1 coat to cover but the more you layer, the richer the color. Lastly, its the best deal for the buck. Better quality than most other brands, its perfect size for what I needed and it stores well.
There are two ways of staining. 1. Using a rag and wiping it on. Or 2. paint brush. I used the paint brush method. I found that it gave me more control of lines and edges, plus it was much faster in my opinion.
Patients is a bitch!
As I had said before this project will teach you patients. Each pallet has to be stained 2x's at least and each coat can take up to 24 hours to really get a good cure. I know the container says that it dries in an hour but that would be under normal conditions and not freezing in my garage, the B. Hive.
The first section, first three pallets to be stained, went quicker than I expected. There are however far more nooks in the wood then you think. Daylight is really good to show you spots you may have missed, a bright shop light would really have been helpful along the way. I cut in the Eye or Ra and to my surprise did not do such a bad job. I mean its not exact nor perfect but you can tell what it is and that is all I was really going for. This may the first point that I felt some pride about this project. Sometimes you just have to take the risk and try something you would never before..step back and admire the work and energy I had put into this felt really good. It was the first time I'd felt truly good about anything in a while.
This is also just about the time I realized that GLOVES would probably be a good idea right about now!
The entire process for the first section took me a few weekends to put together. This giving me 4-5 hours a day at the time to work, it not a quick process at all. It was ok for me though, you see I needed the quiet free time to think and clear my mind and energy. Having something like this concentrate on rather than the world outside of the B. Hive really helped me find happiness and peace within my heart.
While I stained and waited for everything to dry, I went ahead and mocked it up a second time to be sure all the pieces would fit properly. Each step, once again keeping note in my journal. So far this project has come out simply amazing. I am really proud of the work I have put into this piece. Now that I have the first section done. It was time to start on the second...the sanding didn't take as long this time. The pallet had some truly beautiful slats on it, so it didn't take long to get it going.
The third on the other hand took the longest of all of them. The pieces I chose do not line up just right and I still debated if I really wanted to out in a dog bed or not. I figured they would be going in or on it anyways so seriously considered it. But that is for the next blog!
So far I still haven't spent but $20 on this project and have really come along way. It is now February and the staining on sections 1 and 2 are now complete. They will need a final touch up before the water seal.
Once again I mocked up the first and second pieces. Making sure they were in the right positions and also deciding on the back support for the second section. The picture above gave me some very cool idea's that I will share with you in a later blog.
Last section....sheew! I have everything stained and now the last sections has posed a pretty serious question. Do I nut up and try and put in the doggy bed...or do I finish staining it and let it just be plain Jane? I second guessed myself for a while and decided that I had come to far already not to try. If it did not work out than..well...I go get more free pallets and try again. This was the second time I not only surprised myself but impressed myself with stepping outside of myself and let my guard down. My dogs deserve the retreat from the hot summer sun and I deserve a prove to myself I am worth it as well.
Stay tuned for my next blog as I take a risk...a cut in a doggy bed. Until next time.........
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