Goodwill

About four weeks into the new year, I woke up one day and decided that our furniture needed a facelift. We had pieces of every different shade imaginable, and I was tired of it. Mr. Handsome and I have committed to living frugally, so going out and purchasing a bunch of brand new furniture isn’t something we plan on doing.After a little bit of research, I made the decision to find a few used pieces of furniture from Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and Goodwill and to refinish those along with some of our existing pieces. I started with a coffee table, for which I posted a tutorial.

We had an unexpected cold snap in late January and early February, so I worked on the furniture indoors and then hauled it out to our heated shed to allow it to dry. But by the second week of February, the weather had turned unusually warm, with a few days hitting 80F (26C), so I was able to do the bulk of the work outdoors.

My second project was a nightstand that Mr. Handsome made in high school wood shop class.

After refinishing a small entertainment stand that I purchased on Facebook Marketplace for $25, I  finally felt skilled enough to tackle our dining room table (pictures coming soon). Now I’m working my way through our four dining chairs, which are bar stool height and have curved backs that make them quite challenging to sand and stain. I also have a couple other pieces that I’m hoping to refinish, including an end table and a stool.

You might remember my post about the free bookshelf I received from Mr. Handsome’s aunt in 2015. It has served us well for two and a half years, but our ever-expanding book collection has outgrown it. I spent quite a bit of time searching for a solid wood bookshelf that I could refinish, but I couldn’t find anything that worked.

For Valentine’s Day, my wonderful Mr. Handsome offered to make me a bookshelf! He constructed the entire thing, complete with routed edges, using two slabs of wood that we purchased from a wood supplier. The shelf took the better part of two days to build, and when it was finished, I did the staining, using the same method and materials explained in my coffee table post.

Mr. Handsome plans to write up a tutorial for his DIY bookshelf, but I wanted to give you a sneak peek.