I have two very wonderful sisters.  You might have seen them guest review before, and they are both really talented.  My older sister Jeralee recently started a new hobby – transforming thrift store, garage sale,  and Craigslist finds into something pretty.    It’s quite amazing to me what she’s done so far, and I thought it would be fun to feature one of her articles once a week. If you are interested in checking out other articles, you can find her blog at: Seeing the Potential. Also, if you haven’t read her bio before, here’s a quick into.

Jeralee
I am a 37 year old mother of two girls, married for 16 years and living in the Pacific Northwest. I am primarily a stay at home mom and spend my days hauling my 10 year old, the aspiring future Olympic athlete, to swim practices and wading through homework with kids.

I am a professional harpist with a degree in music and freelance, playing for weddings, open houses and other functions. I also teach harp and piano lessons privately. My interests include, gardening, knitting & crocheting, home improvement, and a brief 4 year stint as an amateur boxer.

I also am parenting an 8 year old child with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, primarily – Sensory Processing Disorder, Communication Disorders and Learning Disabilities. I love to learn and read as much on topics that help better me as a person, or make my family’s life just a bit easier.

Now that you’ve been propery introduced, here is one of Jeralee’s first projects:

The Coffee Table
A few weeks ago, I saw this coffee table advertised on Craiglist.

The top was a little rough, but it had nice lines, it was cheap – $15, I didn’t have a coffee table, and after spending hours perusing over Mustard Seed Creations , My Repurposed Life , Funky Junk Interiors, and Better After – I knew I had the creative tools to transform this find into something I could use. Those are just a few of the many creative blogs I have come across. My recycling/re purposing nature was REALLY coming out – courtesy of living 16 years in Oregon. The thriftiness? Well, we used to hit the garage sales a lot growing up.

So onto refurbishing…

First came the lovely process of stripping off the top coat.

It was a lot of work and took about 6 hours to fully strip it. I used an eco- friendly stripper ( that doesn’t sound quite right – now does it? ) that didn’t smell so toxic. The girls helped a long the way, doing some sanding etc. I wasn’t quite sure what type of wood it was, but figured it was pretty soft wood. When it was completely stripped, I determined that it was pine, perfect for a first project.

Next came sanding, priming, and painting the legs. After several different tries, I settled on Rustoleums’ Heirloom White – satin finish.

Then it was prepping the top surface with MinWax Pre Stain Wood Conditioner, which I already had on hand from another project. By the way, always follow directions on products. I decided to neglect the instructions on the can of Plastic Wood and filled the holes in BEFORE I stained it… It didn’t work and was next to impossible to absorb the stain properly.

Finally, I did 3 separate applications of MinWax’s Stain – Special Walnut. After that, if was MULTIPLE layers of MinWax’s Polycrylic seal in a semi-gloss. It’s a water based sealant that will take a beating more than the polyurethane, and won’t yellow over time. Yes, I did learn all of these tips on the Internet… my lifeline.

So here is the finished project.

Does it have lots of flaws? Oh yes, but it was fun and I learned a lot.

To see more of Jeralee’s projects, visit Seeing the Potential.

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