“Not So Scary” Halloween: Shelf

by Vicki

This really great shelf/mini mantle came into the thrift store where I volunteer, The Living Harvest. It was a little worn & oak “orange” but I knew it would be a great display piece. 

Raw Materials:

• Solid wood shelf

Purchased or from personal craft stash

• Sand paper/sander—80 grit to 220 grit
• Rust-oleum Kona wood stain
• Denatured alcohol
• Rags/rubber gloves/metal brush

​I wanted to get rid of the “orange-ness” of the oak so I started by sanding the flat top & edge to bare wood. I didn’t want to sand the rest of the piece because frankly it would have been a lot of work!

I decided to clean it with some denatured alcohol I had in my stash & then figure out what to do. Lo & behold the denatured alcohol dissolved the existing finish & I was able to easily removed it with a green scrubby pad & metal brush. Yay!

Since the finish came off, I was able to stain the rest of it. Put on the rubber gloves to keep your hands stain free & follow the directions on the can making sure to work across in one direction & not overworking the stain. I was having a hard time getting the stain into the deep oaky grain which caused the top to be darker than the rest. I’m actually okay with the look.