I love the solid, sensible construction of this bed frame. My better half was not thrilled with the country-casual look of the unfinished poplar though. She also felt the unfinished wood was insufficiently cat and kid proof. Bare wood does soak up stains and felt tip pen marks and such, and cats do like to sink their claws into it. Jetta, our senior product tester is shown checking out her latest accomodation in the photo. She loves to sharpen her claws on bare wood, but once its varnished, she is uninterested. I was able to convince the lady of the house that with some dark walnut stain and a coat of good floor varnish, we could banish the country look in favor of a more finished faux walnut furniture appearance and make the result pretty attack resistant. She was convinced. We did the deed and shes pretty pleased as are the friends whove checked it out. It aint walnut, but its pretty OK.
As to finishing it, stain and urethane the individual pieces. Dont try to do it after assembly. Watch out for the end grain that shows. Some of it needs to be sanded smooth. (Tops of the four uprights especially) Check how pieces fit together. Theyve beveled the edges of a lot of the pieces. This makes a lot of end-grain show. You need to make sure it gets stained. (On the ends of the slats of the headboard for instance.) For a dark stain I dont see any need for filler except on the end grain. I didnt bother filling the small areas of end grain that show in the joints. As a result they came out very dark. I dont think the affect is bad though. I used Behr dark walnut oil baed stain and it worked very well. Apply it liberally, give it a few minutes, wipe it pretty free of excess and come back about half an hour later and really rub it out with clean paper towels until the lighter grain areas pop. Dont rub against the grain. It can leave fibers embedded in the wood. Dont leave any excess anywhere, even where it wont show. It can take days to dry where its as thick as a coat of paint. Wait 24 hours before varnishing. I used Minwax oil modified urethane varnish. This stuff is used for basketball courts and the like. Its tough, but it does have a yellowish tinge which makes it unsuitable for use on really light shades of wood. Its no problem on a dark finish though. I ended up satisfied with one fairly heavy coat. This is not the recommended approach and it wont give a really slick, smooth finish, but hey, this is not the kind of furniture that benfits much from that sort of effort. To get it to a point where it would benefit would take many hours of sanding and detailing. Stay away from glossy varnishes. A satin works best. I most definitely love it
Solid, Customizable
I love the solid, sensible construction of this bed frame. My better half was not thrilled with the country-casual look of the unfinished poplar though. She also felt the unfinished wood was insufficiently cat and kid proof. Bare wood does soak up stains and felt tip pen marks and such, and cats do like to sink their claws into it. Jetta, our senior product tester is shown checking out her latest accomodation in the photo. She loves to sharpen her claws on bare wood, but once its varnished, she is uninterested. I was able to convince the lady of the house that with some dark walnut stain and a coat of good floor varnish, we could banish the country look in favor of a more finished faux walnut furniture appearance and make the result pretty attack resistant. She was convinced. We did the deed and shes pretty pleased as are the friends whove checked it out. It aint walnut, but its pretty OK. As to finishing it, stain and urethane the individual pieces. Dont try to do it after assembly. Watch out for the end grain that shows. Some of it needs to be sanded smooth. (Tops of the four uprights especially) Check how pieces fit together. Theyve beveled the edges of a lot of the pieces. This makes a lot of end-grain show. You need to make sure it gets stained. (On the ends of the slats of the headboard for instance.) For a dark stain I dont see any need for filler except on the end grain. I didnt bother filling the small areas of end grain that show in the joints. As a result they came out very dark. I dont think the affect is bad though. I used Behr dark walnut oil baed stain and it worked very well. Apply it liberally, give it a few minutes, wipe it pretty free of excess and come back about half an hour later and really rub it out with clean paper towels until the lighter grain areas pop. Dont rub against the grain. It can leave fibers embedded in the wood. Dont leave any excess anywhere, even where it wont show. It can take days to dry where its as thick as a coat of paint. Wait 24 hours before varnishing. I used Minwax oil modified urethane varnish. This stuff is used for basketball courts and the like. Its tough, but it does have a yellowish tinge which makes it unsuitable for use on really light shades of wood. Its no problem on a dark finish though. I ended up satisfied with one fairly heavy coat. This is not the recommended approach and it wont give a really slick, smooth finish, but hey, this is not the kind of furniture that benfits much from that sort of effort. To get it to a point where it would benefit would take many hours of sanding and detailing. Stay away from glossy varnishes. A satin works best. I most definitely love it