Before and After

What a busy weekend! I got lots done and couldn't be happier that most of the work is now over. Since I am in the process of redecorating our guest bedroom, I needed to find a space for our computer. So I had Joseph install a shelf in the closet to put all of that stuff in. Now I can just close the door and the ugliness of all those wires is gone!! Here are a few pictures of before and after.


I am so happy with how everything turned out and in the picture below you will see that I was still able to hang some of Joseph's UGA pictures above the computer, so he can still look at old Uga staring down at him! I also got most of my furniture painted, thanks largely to my father and brother. Here are a few pictures of that process.

If you are ever in the reverse position of trying to get your white wicker to the brown color to the left, let me tell you how I did that. It's a bit of a process, and I know that it doesn't show that well in the photos, but it turns out really well. Especially if you are looking to get a new look out of furniture that you already have. These are the steps that you take to do this.

1. Paint your white furniture a pumpkiny orange. I know this sounds strange, but you need that strong orange undertone to get the right finish. Not too orange, but a rich deep orange similar to the color that you might use in Thanksgiving decorations. Let the paint dry.
2. After the furniture has been painted, you are going to put a stain over the paint. Choose a really deep, dark color. I believe that I used a dark walnut. Brush this evenly over the furniture. You might have to go back and do another coat until the color that you want is achieved. I will warn you, this stain will always be tacky to the touch. It never completely dries. This is due to the fact that stain is made to soak into wood, not sit on the surface. Let the stain dry for a day or two before you move to the next step.
3. Finally, you are going to cover your furniture with polyurethane. The poly will dry and your furniture will be ready to use as soon as it is dry. Again, you might want to do two coats of poly. Then you are finished and ready to use your new furniture!

This is a long process, but it is worth it. As a safeguard, you might want to test this process on a small piece of the furniture to make sure that your results will be like you desire before you go through all those steps on a greater scale. I hated painting the furniture back white because I remembered the ordeal that I went through with getting it brown to begin with! When we did this finish on the furniture the guy at the paint store didn't think that we could achieve the look that we wanted. He was surprised a week later when my mother took a drawer up to his store to show him. I think that he even said that he would start recommending this process to his customers! So there you go. As soon as I get the guest room all cleaned up and find a place for all of my junk, I will post some pictures of that. Hope everyone had a great weekend!