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Writer's pictureMike Barber

Sofa Table - Pre Assembly Finishing

Another long lapse since the last post because we are getting back at least part of our pre COVID life. Our travels have included a long delayed trip to Africa and a destination wedding in Stowe Vermont. One of the big lessons I have learned on making larger furniture pieces is doing as much of the finish work as I can prior to assembly. Since the last post, I disassembled the dry fit table and dyed it with a water based medium brown dye as the first step in the multi layered staining process I used on the fireplace cabinets I made for Nick and Samantha. Before applying the dye, I coated all of the wood with a dilute solution of a wipe on gel varnish to partially seal the wood and prevent blotching of the dye. The dye leaves the wood a medium brown color.


I then applied a coat of a warm brown gel stain to all of the pieces to get a color that would match the fireplace cabinets I had built before.











The next step in this process will be to apply several coats of shellac to all of the pieces prior to assembly. The shellac will keep any glue squeeze out from sticking, add warm color to the table and will serve as a good base for applying varnish to the top surfaces for good moisture protection.

Our trip to Africa reignited my interest in photography so I am posting a few of my photos from the trip.

Sunset on the Zambezi River

Victoria Falls

Lion

Zebras


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