bed part five.

Finishing (part one) ...

Well, with a solid weekend of gorgeous weather forecast I knew I would have to get on both coats of stain I intended. The first step was of course to put on a wood conditioner. I talked to the Stain Guy at Rockler last week and he hooked me up with Zinsser Seal Coat to serve the purpose - worked great (not sure what's up with the dude who left the 1-star review on Amazon). Although I should say finishing is not my forté. The last thing I think I stained was my entertainment cabinet I got at Ikea and one day decided to strip and refinish with a really dark stain. It turned out OK, but that was probably five or six years ago.

So anyway with my lack of experience understood I went to work applying the Seal Coat -

The one thing I learned was to not let it be applied unevenly as it will then show through the stain you subsequently apply. Seems obvious, but it just requires constant attention to make sure it's not dripping along the underside of an edge or something while you're applying. I used an old brush to put it on, then sanded it down with the lightest abrasive pad Rockler had (another suggestion by the Stain Guy).

After letting it dry for half an hour or so, I was able to start staining. Ooh boy. I was really nervous about this part I must admit mostly because of all the money, effort and time I had spent up until this point to make the bed as nice as possible. And I could very likely completely ruin it at this stage. I guess I could paint it, but then I would have spent all that extra money on nice clear, knot-free pine and VG fir for nothing. And I wanted it stained, not painted. So hopefully it would work.

I had picked out General Finishes espresso water-based stain cos it was the shade I wanted - a really deep, dark brown -

I used a foam brush (before Katie took over) to apply (it was really thick - almost like what I would expect a gel to be like) and wiped it off with a t-shirt. Well, started using just a t-shirt and my hand but did not like how uneven it was coming off. So I grabbed a mitered 2x4 I had and an old sanding sponge, then wrapped it with the t-shirt. The mitered 2x4 was a good angle to work at and the sponge helped even out the pressure I had to apply. Definitely helped.

The posts and siderails went pretty fast. The headboard and footboard took much, much longer -

I realized pretty quickly after starting them that I should have pre-stained the vertical slats and the edges of the pieces that filled the gaps in between them. That would have made it look much better (I assume), but I was hoping a second coat of stain would a) darken it slightly (although it was about as dark as I wanted) and more importantly b) hide the imperfections of the first coat.

Once I am all finished with the bed completely I am going to compile a list of things I learned (since this was just the practice bed, afterall) so that I don't make the same mistakes again on the next bed I build since even with the frustrations of staining and finishing I am still enjoying the process. Maybe because I am learning everything and figuring stuff out and solving problems as I go which is always good.

Next step - 2-5 coats of varnish.