My First Wood Staining Experience

I found these gorgeous, handmade wood pieces at a garage sale a few weeks ago for $1 each and just had to get them! I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to use them for, but I thought they would make yet another awesome diy craft for me this summer. Jaxson is an amazing napper, and while his schedule is slowly starting to change, he does still have at least one 2-3 hour nap a day, and if I use my time wisely, that's a great chunk of time to get stuff done!

Naturally, i've been taking full advantage of that and have been trying my hand at some new things, including knitting, round looming, painting, gardening, and now this: wood staining!

Unfinished pieces, they're even beautiful as they are, non?

I bought a gel stain at Rona and a varnish overcoat so at least the wheel barrow could handle being outside. The wheel barrow also came with a couple small pots that I immediately planted some mini dahlias in, so I wanted to make sure I could water them in it without warping the wood. 

The process was amazingly simple, incredibly fun, and was over before I knew it! I finished staining both pieces, and cleaning up before Jaxson even woke up! The gel stain was great - it was way thicker than I expected it to be, but I liked that. There was zero spatter onto myself, and it went on evenly and simply!

Stained and ready to weatherproof!

I let them dry outside overnight and then coated them with the waterproofing varnish and voila! I'm really impressed with how easy this was to do, and at how good they look! I had a ton of fun doing this, and now make it a point of looking for wood pieces at garage sales or thrift stores that I can sand down and stain! 

Now I just have to be careful to buy useful things and not get stuck just buying for the sake of staining! We've all been there, right? Right??

I love the natural stain outside, because it just finished this piece nicely and doesn't detract from the beautiful plants!

This little tool box became my handy-dandy beside-the-couch lotion, nail clipper, kleenex holder, phone and tablet charger! It looks great and is compact so I have more space for my cups of coffee in the morning!