Mini Shelf Rehab
Soooooo, here’s my latest rehab. Let me just say that even small projects like this are very few and far between lately. This took me like ten nap times–at least.
A few weeks ago, a few of our aunties down in Makaha teamed up to get this gem into our hands. It came from a classroom that was being cleaned out over the summer.
Originally, I thought of making it into a play kitchen, but after much deliberation I decided that if I was going to put hard earned work, sweat and TIME into this I should at least make something that can grow with the girls. Perhaps it can be a nightstand down the road or a mini-bookshelf… The possibilities are endless, really.
I wouldn’t call this a tutorial, but I’ll break down the big steps for you. And I’m totally bad at remembering to take pictures DURING the project. I really should have taken better ones, especially during the taping and painting action. Oh well… life goes on.
Here’s how it looked when I started. Sturdy and solid. Overall, a great piece of furniture.
First thing’s first. You gotta take the doors and all the hardware off! Thankfully, I had this sweet little helper to assist me.
Next, I had to sand it all down. Another step I forgot to document. It was pretty easy with Mike’sDewalt sander though. I started with some rough 80 grit sand paper then worked my way down to fine 150-220.
Then came the staining. I always mean to wear gloves for this… and I always forget to. Staining is super easy and fun (for me). It’s the dessert after dinner, if you will. Super satisfying. The way the stain seeps down into the grain of the wood and gets all soaked up. Except when you don’t sand the existing coat of polyurethane down enough, then it’s just frustrating! Which is what I did. So I had to go back and redo it with a coarser grit. Ugh. Finally, it took. I think this picture was the first attempt which is why it doesn’t look very dark. Oh, and the stain I used was leftover from all our house stuff: Dark Walnut, I think, by Rustoleum.
Next, I cut the lines with a small paintbrush using our leftover white trim paint for the house. We had a ton left. And by ton, I mean a five gallon bucket 
Then, I painted the doors with a brush. Bleh. I was really disappointed with the way they came out. The brush strokes made me want to gag. Even with a second coat, they just didn’t look good. That’s when I decided I needed to spray the whole thing. I had several other things to spray white as well, so Mike got me all set up with the spray gun (thanks babe) and I went to work. Of course I had to spend quite a while taping everything off. That was really boring and I hated doing it, but I knew it had to be done if I wanted a good outcome!
And here we have the stained and painted mini-shelf (without a clear top coat).
I put the hardware back on, did a few coats of varnish on top of the stain, and had Mike lug it back outside for a photo op 
The last thing I forgot to mention was that I bought new handles at Home Depot to spruce it up a bit. I think they were like $2.33 each.
And voila! There you have it, folks. The before and after. And A LOT of time consuming work in between… not my favorite thing to do, but I must say I really like the finished product.
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