My {updated, clean and organized} garage

I spent the beginning of the summer cleaning, organizing and decorating my garage. I had to work on it between projects, and it's still not the perfect workshop, but it's working a lot better for me these days.

My first step was cleaning out my scrap pile. I hate to get rid of anything I might use at some point, but I really needed the space. So I went through and tossed anything that was less than 18" long. Thankfully, we have a few friends that have fire pits in their back yards and they took the extra wood off my hands!

I also bought a new (used) workbench from Craigslist. It has a few drawers, a vise, a cabinet with a shelf, and a metal pegboard back. I use the pegboard more for the magnetic-ness (that's totally a word, right?) than for the peg hooks, but I use those too. It's nice to have a place to hang random things that I use all the time like safety glasses, gloves and my to-do lists. The extra storage and workspace is great too!

Golden pecan & dark walnut farmhouse table {finishing}

Hello! Happy Monday! I'm spending a few weeks in Colorado with my family, but I've had so many readers ask how I finished the straight-leg farmhouse table and bench I built a while back, that I decided to share it with all of you. 

This was my first time mixing and layering stain, and I was sooooo nervous! Stain is something you can't go back on. With paint you can paint over and fix it, but if I didn't like the stain I would have to strip the whole thing and start again. As in, RE-sand the entire table top. I've already told you how much I despise sanding, right? I really didn't want that to happen on this table. Good news, it didn't! I was so happy with the way this entire set came out.

Want to try it yourself? Here's what I did...

Supplies:

- Golden Pecan stain

- Dark Walnut stain

- Paintbrushes

- Rags 

- Sealant (I used Rustoleum polyurethane in semi-gloss)

My table was built out of 2 x 10s. Just the untreated ones, I think they're Douglas Fir. The process is all about layering. I painted my entire base black before I started staining.