Sharing Home Decor Insanity

I love the inspiration I get from all of you when I ask for a little advice on my blog. In response to my plea request for furniture refinishing advice, one reader, Jenny, emailed me this gorgeous picture of her banister.

She used a tinted polyurethane product I didn’t know existed and made the whole thing sound really simple. Here is some of what she said:

The banister started out a dirty oak from the 80’s. I painted the rungs white and used the polyurethane on the handrail and the newel post. You can also see the bookcase and armoire in the background that I did with the same stain. They each started out with a different finish, but ended up very close in finish. One word of advice on the stain, make sure to let it dry the recommend dry time. I’m an impatient painter and rarely wait, but with this I had to or I would get streaks from the previous not quite dried stain. Otherwise, if you let it dry properly, it comes out very smooth.

I didn’t sand or anything, just wiped it down before I painted it. It was a little shiny, and I think that the hand railing was a veneer finish because it had started to crack. I really wish I had a before picture because this was a HUGE improvement.

You might also be interested to know that the ceiling fan and plate above it were spray painted with a hammered copper paint from brushed nickel. The lines on the wall are ribbon hot glued to the wall. This was a little trick from the apartment days when you couldn’t really do anything to the walls but leave them boring white. The hot glue pulls off without taking the paint.

Thanks so much, Jenny! Great tips! You should start a blog! I think you have given hope to those with ugly banisters everywhere!

I’d really like to try it out on my banister. I’m not sure if BSB will be thrilled, because currently the banister is in great shape, but it is a medium oak and would love for it to be a little darker/richer. I found a couple of versions of the stained polyurethane at Lowes. They were clearing out a maple color for really cheap, but I don’t think it would have made much of a difference from my current color. The guy working there looked at me strangely when I said that my friend hadn’t sanded at all. The instructions still say to sand, but he said he could see how that might work with the polyurethane. Anyone else try this? Obviously it only works if you want to go darker, and from what Jenny said, and what I read, the darker you want to go, the more coats you apply. Cool, huh!

In other internet sharing, Melissa @ The Inspired Room is having a Shutter linky party, which inspired me to finish my shutter project which has been hanging around for several months since it is so hot outside!

I got these mismatched, but attached shutters at our Habitat for Humanity Restore. I first painted them, several months ago, but the combo of brush painting, letting my daughter help, and super high temps, made kind of a mess of the paint.

I’ve been letting them work on their “weather-look” for the last little while. I finally cleaned them up, sanded off the really goopy parts, and bought a can of spray paint, so I could get into the corners more easily. And here they are ready to hang.

Where are they going? In my loft framing the window. Remember this post? My inspiration:

(image from Michael Miller Fabrics)

I’m following most of the plans I outlined in that post. And if I ever get the room organized and finished, you can bet there will be a big post and lots of celebrating.

I’ll have some party posts next week. And speaking of parties, I am planning to do a favorite furniture makeover linky party in mid.-Aug. Sure you can link-up an old project, but if you need some motivation to get a new one done, maybe this will help. I’m hoping to have a few new ones to share by then.

And speaking of my projects…all of you who guessed that my Craigslist purchase was a drafting table were totally right! But no one guessed what we are going to do with it, so far….Stay tuned!

Thanks for all of the inspiration and motivation!