Credenza in two takes, not quite

Here is the credenza we purchased the prior weekend from the nice Silver Lake lady, off of Craigslist. It's plain. But I really like the art deco shaped feet. And, it fits in the space perfectly. We made sure to get the sanding paper, gloves, masks and can of stain that same day so we'd be ready to rock and roll come Saturday.

However, instead of jumping right in like we were supposed to, we drove out to get $1.99 breakfast at IKEA, and to pick up a couple of knobs for the cabinet, and a frame for the Manhattan poster. Ended up losing a major chunk of the day. It was still lovely out though and with high hopes we dug in! Look at how happy Sergio is in the first picture below.

Take 1
Sergio removed the backing and cabinet doors before we went to town on the veneer with the sand paper. We had been told to sand just the very thin top layer and we should be able to stain. That's what we did.



Um. It didn't work. I didn't get any photos but trust me, the stain did not take. We needed to sand deeper and our paper was just not coarse enough. So we took a walk down to our local hardware store to purchase coarser paper and hopefully, an affordable sander. We also stopped in at a restaurant to sit and partake in tacos and a burrito. :) yuum.

Take 2
Sergio manned that sander like a pro! It was a lot easier and faster than the two of us hand sanding.
After Sergio sanded the entire top, he eagerly began staining again.

Um x 2. It didn't work again. See, the darker edge? That's where we were able to get the veneer off completely and where the stain was able to sink in. That's what we wanted it to look like but all over. The light part in the middle is where there is still too much veneer. Sigh. We should have sprung for the coarser, higher quality paper. Quality counts people, quality counts.

So....we called it a day. It was getting dark quickly and cold too. We'll go get coarse, stronger paper and start again the next day. Argh!!

Oh well. At least we got tacos.

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P.S. How crazy is it that it's February 2010 already? Slow it down!