Our new DIY dinning Table

I'm so excited last night we finished our dinning room table! That's right Adam and  I built this! We got the plans Here. Ana white has some amazing plans that are easy to follow. I originally saw this on Jen's blog found Here. I love her blog also! 

After building the table I decided I wanted to use a natural stain technique that "ages" the wood. It was so simple. Here's how I did it..

 

Testing the steel wool the pine didn't even turn on the side with out the tea 

I used a tea, vinegar and steel wool stain.

Fist I made up my steel wool and vinegar concoction... I used a huge mason jar prob about 50 oz.. I 1.5 pads of 0000 steel wool and washed it in soapy water to remove any oils that would keep the oxidation from happening... I broke the steel wool apart in to small pieces and put in the jar then filled the jar with the white vinegar... I let it sit  about 25 hrs... Many blogs I had read said to let it sit like 3 days so I wasn't sure it would have had time to oxidizes that quickly but when I tested it it was already plenty strong. I removed the hunk of steel wool to make sure it didn't oxides anymore and make it an uneven job as I got near the bottom I also stirred it regularly during the process. 

Pine has very low levels of tannins. Which is what the vinegar and steel wool react to.. So to up the tannins. I first painted a tea stain all over... I simply brewed strong black tea I think I used 4 large bags in about 20 oz of water. I let the table dry for about 3 hrs then put on the vinegar mixture... 

Once the table had dried I decided I wanted to warm it up just a tad. It came out very blue grey which would have looked awesome in a modern home...

So I mixed briwax clear, Annie Sloan clear, and a tiny but of briwax Tudor brown... The mixture was just a very light tan. I applied a single coat over the whole table, let dry, then applied a second on top... Buffed it out and was so happy with my new table!!! It took a lot of wax the wood really soaked it up. 

table before sanding

starting to oxidize 

pre wax

It looks so amazing in person. I wish i could have taken better pictures of it.. Im so thrilled with how it came out!