Welcome back to Kristen’s Sunroom makeover! It is week 2 of the One Room Challenge and we finished up a project that has been about 2 or 3 years in the making! I am so thrilled that this amazing piece of furniture is FINALLY  finished. Let’s get right to it with a before photo.

The photo on the left was about 2-3 years ago when I brought the piece home. (I had to really do some searching for that photo on my phone!) This was back when I used chemical stripper to try to get off all of that goopy, gatoring, old varnish that was hiding all of the beautiful wood underneath. And that was all I got to. I really don’t remember why I didn’t finish it those years ago, but it just never happened!

Fast forward to now, I have a beautiful new sunroom in my new home that I want to makeover and this piece needed to get finished! So I brought it outside and continued work on it. I used my orbital sander to sand down that beautiful oak. There was some leftover varnish in just a couple areas that I was able to get off with the sander and the entire piece just needed to be smoothed out.

It definitely isn’t perfect by any means. It has scratches, some fairly deep, and many holes as well. But I didn’t mind one bit! I new this was a special piece and all of those imperfections tell a story and give a piece character. So I didn’t try to repair anything on this. The goal was just to bring back it’s natural beauty.

So after sanding I used Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint product Hemp Oil which is an all natural oil that hydrates and rejuvenates old wood. It is seriously an amazing product (that is also very versatile – you can use it on cast iron, metal, real leather and over milk paint!) All I did was brush the oil on, let it soak for just a little bit since the wood was very old, and then I wiped off the excess with a clean, lint-free cloth.

Here is what the piece looked like after just the hemp oil.

It was a bit orange-y for my liking so I decided to take another product from the Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk paint line – Antiquing Wax to add over the top of the hemp oil. While the antiquing wax is tinted dark it didn’t change the color of the wood too terribly much since the hemp oil came first. But it did help to deepen the color a bit, just enough to take the orange away! Which is absolutely perfect!

And just look at that wood grain now! You can actually see it, instead of a goopy mess. I am so thrilled with how beautiful this piece is even though it isn’t perfect.

I did stage this piece for photos in the sunroom where it is placed against the wall, but in reality when we are done with this room, it will be a side table in between the couch and the bergere chair. I plan to create a lovely sitting area in the center of the room. I want this room to be a place that family and friends can gather all together and have a nice conversation or play games.

I plan to have a pretty large area rug for the furniture in the middle and I’m guessing this piece will sit on the area rug, which will help to break up all the oak of the flooring and of this piece. Not to mention the neutral couch immediately next to it will help as well.

I still have a whole lot of project left to do for this room. I am hoping to get to painting the walls this weekend. I already got the paint, but need some undisturbed time to just get it done. It will happen, don’t worry! After the wall paint, I really need to hit the hard items and get that chair reupholstered and my hutch out. Ugh so much work to do on top of everything else! Wish me luck!

See you next week!

Products used: MMS Hemp Oil / MMS Antiquing Wax / Orbital Sander / Label Pulls