Bookshelf Refresh

I went on a junk exploring trip with my son and his fiancée in an unexplored area, where we stumbled upon an awesome little shelf that I fell in love with at the first store we walked into. I picked it up for less than $50 and planned to strip and refinish it. However, like my other projects, it sat in my workshop for a while until I could figure out what to do with it.

During another shopping trip, I discovered Rethunk Junk by Laura products, and the store owner talked to me and my friend at length about them. I was particularly interested in their Stain Top – Dark Walnut product and decided to use it for this bookshelf instead of spending time stripping, sanding, staining, and sealing it.

I had to do some work on the top to fill the hole someone had drilled into it and to minimize some deeper scratches, but that was it. I used Clean – Prep to get it ready for the Stain Top. Initially, I was skeptical, but it did an excellent job cleaning the bookshelf, and I highly recommend it. I used a soft cloth and some elbow grease as it wasn’t very dirty.

The top was the only part of the bookshelf that required significant time and effort. I filled the hole with wood putty and sanded out the top to reduce the imperfections. Then, I applied the Stain Top product and was impressed with the results. However, I wanted the shelf to be a little darker, so I did something I had never done before: I over-stained it with some Minwax Jacobean stain. I wasn’t sure how this would work over the top of the Stain Top, but it worked surprisingly well, and I got the color I wanted for this project.