Sunflower Table

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Don’t you love it when your DIY turns out the way you imagined it, the FIRST time??? This was the case for this awesome antique table that has been in Hubs’ family.  I used four different stains to create this flower, and it was SOOOO easy! Really.  And didn’t take long at all.  Probably 2 hours total, start to finish. In the photo below, you can see the legs, which I didn’t refinish.  They were in pretty good condition, a little dinged up, but fine.  I just tried to match the main color of the table top when I stained it. 

So here’s how it went down.  Step 1: Sand that table top.  I used my Ryobi disc sander which worked like a boss to sand down the table top, including the two leaves. I sanded it first with 120 grit paper, and then 220 grit to smooth it down further.  I used the 120 grit on the edges of the table as well, I wanted to stain those to be uniform.  On of the leaves was a much darker stain than the rest, so I was glad to see how uniform they were after sanding.  Step 2: Free-hand draw on my sunflower with a pencil. If you look closely in the photo below, you can see some pencil marks that I ended up not using.  I wanted this to look like art, not like a stencil, so I just eye-balled and free-handed everything.  This took 10 minutes!  I kept the flower on the leaves for this, so if you ever take them out, it won’t have part of a flower, lookin all weird. 

Step 3: Use a stain pen to outline the flower leaves and center. I used this Minwax Stain Pen in Ebony.  It was perfect, and went on very accurately.  The trick to these stain pens is to follow the directions on the package, and to try it out on a sample piece of wood too.  I used a Paint Pen, and I didn’t like the look as well.  I thought seeing the wood through the stain a little had a nicer effect for my end goal.   

Step 4: Use a small-ish brush to paint on Minwax Dark Walnut stain into the inner leaves.  I found that less was more, I didn’t need a lot on the brush at all. I used barely any of this 8 oz can. 

Step 5: Paint the outer leaves with Minwax Pickled Oak, mixed with a very small amount of the Dark Walnut. Like maybe a tablespoon of the Dark Walnut mixed with the 8 oz of the Pickled Oak.  You can always add more if you want it a little darker.  I used the same brush as before, ain’t nobody got time to rinse out stain brushes. I just squeezed it with some paper towels to get most of the Dark Walnut.

Here’s what the Pickled Oak stain looked like with a bit of Dark Walnut mixed in. 

Step 6: I mixed up a little batch of Pickled Oak with a bit MORE Dark Walnut to add some contrast on those leaf edges.  You can see it below.  It didn’t end up making too much of a visual difference, but maybe.

So, below you can see what it looked like at that point.  I think if I would have used a lighter hand with the stain, or a more expensive brush, I might have been able to just let it dry at this point.  However, some of the stain was still not sinking in.  So…Step 7: I took a paper towel and blotted/rubbed the stain a bit.

Here is me, rubbing the stain in.  Now, as you can see, it was unavoidable that I might get some of the ebony stain pen lines smeared.  I figured I could just go back over them in the end. 

After the initial blotting and rubbing….Step 8: I began to add the main color, Minwax Golden Oak. Again, I barely made a dent in the 8 oz can. I did the rest of the top and the edges with this stain.  

Here is what it looked like with all of the Golden Oak applied.  It really matched the legs well, fortuitously. Step 9: Rub off the excess Golden Oak. This step is key to staining, and I have learned it the hard way. I waited about 7 minutes to let it set, and then went over it with a paper towel, getting it all nice and uniform. Step 10: Go back over the outline with the Ebony Stain Pen. This probably would have worked better if I had waited for the rest of the stain to dry, but I knew I wanted to rub the flower leaves a little bit more and make it a little more “smudgy.” So I applied the pen when the rest of the stain was still a little wet. The photo below is before I reapplied the pen and smudged it up a little bit to soften the edges.

Here you can see the difference after I reapplied the pen, and then used a paper towel to soften up the edges a little.  This had the effect I wanted!

Step 11: Poly. 2 Coats. Poly is another one of those things that is so easy once you know how.  First, I let that stain set for about 48 hours.  You want it to be nice and dry.  Then, just get a cheap brush and put a thin layer of that poly over everything, keeping a “wet edge”–basically just doing it quickly enough that the edge of the part you are painting doesn’t dry before you connect it to the next section. I use Minwax Polyurethane in Satin. It leaves a nice finish that is not too shiny, but protects really well.  Now here’s a nice little trick.  You should do two coats.  It really makes a difference.  But why spend all that time rinsing a brush you are just going to use again, especially with poly, which is so hard to get out (I’m just gonna throw this cheap brush out rather than try to rinse it). So just put it in a plastic zippy bag! This keeps the air out and the brush stays wet.  So when I’m ready for the 2nd coat, the brush is too!  Before you put on the 2nd coat of poly, sand it with a fine grit sanding sponge, REALLY lightly.  It does not take much to smooth this poly, and you don’t want to get below the poly and sand it off.  Let that all dry (this fast-drying poly only needs 3-5 hours depending on temperature, but you can let it dry overnight if you want.  By the way, I always try to poly in the garage with the door open if at all possible, it STINKS so bad. And that ain’t good for you. 

Here it is with the poly just applied, looks a little shiny! But that’ll go away once it dries, it will also lighten up. 

Yes, perfect for my sewing/craft/office room! Stay tuned for a reveal post of that room…it is under construction in the basement 🙂

Here is the final design, with soft, smeared edges. Boy will I enjoy looking at this when I am sewing or writing.