That’s right! There are hidden Mickeys on my table!
 
This project started as a total fail. Times two! I had this cool table with 6 chairs that I purchased off of Craigslist about five years ago. It had great bones and was nice enough as it was. The chairs are a creamy color with beautiful rush seating, and the table base and legs are that same beautiful color, but the tabletop color just wasn’t right. The flooring in our home is a dark walnut, and the table was a very light-colored wood. So I sanded it down, stenciled it, and stained it with a Minwax walnut stain/polyurethane all-in-one deal. The stencil was awesome, but the color ended up being the exact same as what it started out as. (FAIL #1…but not really my fault.)
 
So I sanded off the polyurethane coating to try a different stain. Or at least I thought I did. This time I tried Rustoleum’s dark walnut color. The color was perfect, but evidently I hadn’t sanded the entire table because the stain didn’t absorb everywhere. I had a blotchy table. (FAIL #2…TOtally my fault.)
 
Well they say that practice makes perfect. Instead of just sanding this time, I decided to strip the whole thing down to the wood…stain, paint, and all. I searched my trusty friend Pinterest for tips on how to strip furniture, and I came across this post on 2 Little Superheroes. I actually picked up two tips here. The first was a recommendation to use the product Citristrip . I was able to find it in a spray can at my local WalMart. I tell you this stuff smells good enough to eat! But don’t.
 

 
I put a plastic dropcloth underneath the table and then taped another plastic dropcloth around the legs of the table because I didn’t want to mess up the paint there. I sprayed the entire surface of the tabletop and then covered it all with plastic garbage bags. Yes, plastic garbage bags. (That was tip #2 by the way.)
 

 
Evidently it speeds up or intensifies or does SOMEthing to the chemical reaction. I was skeptical, but I tried it. I remember watching my mom strip furniture when I was a child. It took her hours, if not days to do. I waited an hour, removed the bags, and took a plastic scraper to the table. Five minutes later (FIVE MINUTES!!!) it looked like this…
 

 
No paint, no stain, no nothing. Just raw wood. (And did I mention that it only took me five minutes to scrape it off? No, NOT exaggerating!
 
At that point, I washed the table in mineral spirits to remove every last bit of residue. After a few hours of letting it dry, I sanded it down, making sure to stay in the direction of the grain. I used a dry towel and then tack cloth to clean off all the dust particles, and then I stenciled. I used a stencil that I purchased from Hobby Lobby with a 40%-off coupon and white acrylic paint which I applied with a small foam roller. Here it is post-stencil, pre-stain.

 
The stencil had lots of little circles throughout that made it super easy to add hidden Mickeys. I used a pencil eraser to add the ears. There are six Mickeys on the table, one placed in front of or near each of the six chairs.
 

 
I let the paint dry for about an hour and gave it a quick and light hand sanding. I applied the stain with an old sock placed over a latex glove…much easier than using a brush. The Rustoleum brand didn’t have the stain and polyurethane in one so I ended up having to add a couple of coats of poly separately. Waiting is so hard. But sometimes, it’s SO worth it.
 

 
The dark stain really muted the white paint to a beautiful subtle color. Just gorgeous if I do say so myself.
 
Were you inspired by Pinterest this week? I wanna know about it!
 
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3. If possible, somewhere in your post, link back to your PINspiration either on Pinterest or on the original source site so we give credit where credit is due. Always remember to link with love!
 
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And of course, if you’re not a blogger, you can still share pictures of your creativity. Simply send them to me at admin@disneylivingonline.com along with your name, city/state/country, and a link to the original pin, and I’ll post them along with mine.
 

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