I Bleached My Furniture!
I bleached my furniture! Who does that? Shouldn’t bleach be avoided at all cost? Well, I had an idea and I carried it out this week. While social media has its flaws, one thing I love about it…inspiration is to be found in spades. With the typing of a specific hashtag on Instagram or a few keywords on Pinterest, you can find quick, how-to’s.
Some Inspiration for Bleached Furniture
Run, don’t walk, to follow @vintageporch if you do not already. She is amazing and funny! Her feed is filled with beautiful pieces that I would like recreate for my home. A quick search of #bleachedfurniture can turn up some beauties like this or this .
Steps to Bleach Your Furniture
Outlining steps to bleach furniture has actually been a work in progress for me. Not knowing what exactly I’m doing leads me to try a variety of steps. At the beginning of this week, I simply took a paint brush and standard bleach and brushed it onto my desk. While it did lighten the furniture a bit, it was not the light color I desired.
Once my desk, the furniture item I bleached, was dry, I sanded the entire desk lightly then wiped it with a clean cloth. After wiping with a clean cloth, I applied another coat of bleach and allowed it to dry in the sun. Again, the desk was lighter but still not the look I am trying to achieve. You know what they say, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!”
I believe after using acetone to strip down my furniture, I applied three different coats of bleach to the desk and sanding between coats. Once the final coat of bleach was dried, I washed the entire piece with water. My final step, I put a coat of clear wax on the desk in order to seal it. As with my chairs I painted last week, I used the Waverly Clear Wax sealer to give a final coat to my desk.
My Philosophy
I have jokingly told other women my spiritual gift is to make them feel better about themselves – meaning, I usually do not do a task to perfection or there is room for improvement. My philosophy with my home decor is, “use what you have or get creative with a frugal project”. I share this to concede there are better pieces of bleached furniture out there. However, as this is my first attempt at bleaching furniture, I am proud of my progress.
The Results for Bleached Furniture
Well, learning as you go has its own set of pros and cons. Cons are: it is time consuming to figure out what you are doing. The pros are: you are learning a skill you will not easily forget. After working a little each day on this desk, I am excited to show you the results. This desk will be used to hold our daily mail and bills.
Now, what type of chair/stool should I use at this desk? Let me know in the comments. I’m thinking some type of stool would be nice. What are your thoughts? You can see how I previously styled this space here. There was a small end table between the chairs; however, now I have this desk in the space.
