Living Room Decor & DIY Wood Staining

 We bought some couches from a resale shop. They looked good and the upholstery matched our other couches, but the color of the wood work was lighter than the other furniture in the living room. They actually came with palm tree pillows so we re-did those with varying shades of brown fabric from JoAnn's Fabrics. A year later we finally decided to do something about the wood. It does take a lot of time(about a week from start to finish) but it was well worth the time and effort.

Here is the before(of both couches):

We got some stripping gel from our carpenter uncle which speeds along sanding time.

If the couch has a lot of detailing and lacquer it takes more time to sand. As we went we vacuumed the dust which minimized the mess.

 

 Make sure when you tape, you get all of the spaces around the wood and upholstery, this is very important.  I would say you should take your time on this step because the tape is the only thing separating your couch and the stain from disaster. We should have added an extra strip of tape to protect the fabric better. If you do get stain on the couch, you can get it off while it's still wet with mineral spirits.

We used a spatula type thing to get the tape into all of the cracks and crannies. You can also use a butter knife.

 When you are done sanding all of the wood and have taped it, you can start staining. We picked a color that matches almost exactly with the other furniture in the living room.

 The longer you leave the stain on the darker it will get. We left the stain on for about 2-3 minutes. The wood will also probably absorb and darken even after it's wiped off. If you want it darker, you can add another layer of stain.

After you put the stain on, I suggest putting 3+ coats of lacquer. The more coats you put, the better protected it will be. Use any cheap paintbrush.

This is our living room now! It looks so much better, don't you think? We probably only paid about $400.00 for the couches/pillows, and the rest of the supplies were free because we have a very generous uncle! You can see some of his carpentry creations here at Intelligent Design Woodwork.

 This is the other side  of the living room, our mantle and fireplace. 

So, what do you think? I know it seems like a lot of work and honestly, it is. But I have to say a little DIY never hurt anyone. It turned out better than we hoped!