First Refinishing Project Done!!

The mirror is finally done!

Before:
During:
After:

I think it came out amazing for having no idea what I was doing! I used Citristrip, cleaned it with mineral spirits, let it dry for a couple of days, then sanded it with an industrial strength scotch pad, used an attachment on the air compressor to blast the dust away, and stained it with Minwax Red Mahogany and finished with a coat of poly.

It's now ready for it's new home. It's going to go above the couch in the living room. That's really the only place where it'll look right because of it's size. It's about 4'x3'. I'll post pictures once it's been hung.

Quick update

I have successfully stripped for the first time! The mirror is finally done! Well, almost done. It still needs to be stained but the worst part is over and it was much easier than I thought it would be. I chose Minwax Red Mahogany stain which is a dark reddish stain like I had planned to use all along. And I'm hoping to get it stained this weekend. I would do it sooner but I have a huge test I have to study for and some cleaning that needs to be done before I can do it.

We've also been getting ready for winter since the temp has already dropped to freezing at night here. We removed the a/c unit from the bedroom and laid it to rest in the garage for the winter, and James put a new filter in the furnace last night because we finally had to start using it, and we put a heater in the laundry room to keep the pipes from freezing since the room is not insulated.

I found the material to make the curtains for the living room on clearance at WalMart for $1 a yard! It's actually pretty good material, but I wanted cheap because I know I'll have to make more before too long. One of the joys of having a lab that feels the window is his and anything covering it must be removed. Which is the reason why there are no curtains there right now...he tore them off the widow. Along with the curtain rod.

Stripper Supplies

HaHa...not that kind of stripper. But hopefully that got my google hits up a little. I just got (hopefully) everything I need to start stripping the woodwork. I wasn't sure what will work the best so I got 2 different kinds of stripper and a bunch of different tools. I already have a heat gun, mask, and glasses.

I'm going to start small though and refinish this mirror and a bookcase before I start on the woodwork in the house.
This mirror is huge. It's like 3 feet high and about 2 and a half feet wide and it came with the house. It has a stamp on the back that says the glass was plated on 9/25/59 and packed on 2/17/60. When it's done it's going to go in the living room over the couch. And anchored really, really good in case of another earthquake. I'm going to stain it dark like all the other wood in the house but maybe with a reddish tint.

I figured I'd start small so I can figure out what I'm doing and not ruin any of the original wood baseboards, doorframes, doors, or floors. I am hoping to do the mirror tomorrow and I'll post pics if I do.

And I figured out how useless people who work at Lowes are. I had a $10 off $50 purchase so I got all the stripping stuff there. They were friendly, but when I asked about something specific they led me to the area and said "there they are" and then left me to search for about 20 minutes for what I needed (it was in a box that had been pushed back on the bottom shelf). Now I see why so many people get frustrated there.