Working with Unfinished Wood

Monday, July 10, 2006
This weekend, I learned why furniture is so expensive. I use to always think they were ripping you off, now I'm not so sure.

I bought a piece of unfinished furniture last week. It was a dresser drawer. I have dark wood in my bedroom so finding furniture that looks good, matches, and is inexpensive is a real challenge. I decided that I would buy an unfinished piece and stain it myself and therefore save some money. I like working with my hands so figured it would be a fun project as well.

Let me tell you, it really isn't all that easy and can take a great deal of time. It is also messy and you have to deal with the cleanup after you are done. If you factor in all the time and materials above and beyond the actual piece of furniture, I can definitely see why furniture can be so expensive.

3 comments:

Susan said...

Let's see the "after" pic.

T said...

This wasn't the actual piece of furntiure that I did, just one I found on the internet. But I can take a picture of what I did and post it here.

Ryan said...

I think it depends on how much experience you have, and how familiar you are with the materials. I used to help my dad finish up furniture he'd stripped. And he was always able to do it pretty quickly with a fantastic finished product. I'm sure a lot of practice took him to that point. But, working with varnish and making a mess can be fun.