The snow has come and gone with mild days in between. Being sick has also come and gone in between spurts of doing work around the house; chipping away at little things I want done to complete rooms from painting to unpainting ( made up word). Borrowing a heat gun to strip paint off of things can be really fun! Some friends gave me an old built-in book shelf that probably used to be on one side of a fireplace or doorway. Covered in a creme white glossy paint, I thought it may have been in a kitchen or dining area. Whatever the case, my thoughts were that it must have something hidden underneath that deserves to be uncovered and refinished. Yeah, so I am in the middle of that project when I decide it would be fun to also strip the paint off of some window ledges in the house and stain them to match the hardwood floors. Being that the furnitureless (another made up word) spare/computer/someday guest room hasn't been worked on and acts as a partial storage and partial crash space for over night visitors and has not been painted, I picked the ledge in there as the guinea pig for this little project. Just as beautiful of a site as the bubbling,peeling paint from the book shelf offered, four or five layers of paint slipped and scraped away to reveal a hidden gem of a surface. I'm not sure what type of wood it is, although I know it is not oak or pine. The wood is on the softer side and its grain resembles Maple. So onto to the Home Depot to finally buy an electric sander. I ended up with a Ryobi clamp on sander and it was s a few days later at Lowe's that I grabbed a Minwax WoodFinish oil based stain. The finish I went with is Colonial Maple 223 as it appeared to be similar to the stain color of the floors. I have to say it turned out really nice, giving me some confidence in refinishing wood surfaces. While my floors are in great shape, it appears someone had stained them and immediately put down padding and carpeting which has left a weird texture to the surface. Hmm, I suppose I may be ready to take it on!
