French Bar Stools

This post would have been a whole lot sooner, but I had to re-do the base of one of these bar stools.  I'll show you why in a second.  There is nothing out of the ordinary about these two stools.  I picked them up at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago.  My husband painted them for me with some left over paint.  It's a white that is almost a pale yellow.  It's called Churchill Hotel Vanilla and it's a Valspar paint you can purchase at Lowe's.  The only sanding I did on these was right around the edge of the seats and a little over my lettering to blend it a little bit.  The red is cardinal red by Delta and the yellow is moon yellow by Americana.  I shaded with antique white and raw umber.  All are acrylic craft paints.

 I used a grain sack stencil by Maison de Stencil.  This is a long stencil and everything you see on the seat comes from one stencil.  You can visit their website by clicking on their link on my side bar.

 To see how I filled in the details of this stencil to give it more depth, click here for the last project I did with this very stencil.  The tutorial is there.  The following photo shows the details I added before applying Minwax Special Walnut stain.  Just a very light coat to help with the blending and add a little patina to the finish.

 Now here is why this post is being done so late.  Look at this mess and I do mean mess.  I was mad as a hornets' nest yesterday and I mean the entire nest.  My friend keeps telling me how she uses Minwax Gel stains so I thought I would try them.  They were $16 per can and I just didn't feel like spending that much since I have a whole locker full of regular Minwax stain.  I use their products all the time and am always pleased with the results EXCEPT for this one time.  Instead of getting a gel stain, I opted for one of their water based stains.  It's hot and I didn't want to deal with the smell and the heavy gloves and all that so I tried to take a shortcut.  Stain does smear when you apply it; right?  But then you smooth it out with a rag and everything is fine.  Well, this water based stain has no workability.  This is how it went on and there was no wiping it back.  It just stays this way.  Thank goodness I did not apply it to my hand painting.  So take my advice and stick to the normal Minwax products they are known for and save yourself a headache.  Thanks for visiting.

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