Wax On

The tables we built for the wedding are looking really fine these days.

We left both 9.5′ tables at our ceremony site, Preferred Plants, partially because the owners of the shop liked them and thought they would integrate well into their everyday displays, and partially because we had nowhere practical to store them (unless we took the legs off them and hauled them into the basement with the help of maybe 15 other helpers. Read: they’re heavy). If you’ll remember, after we stained them they took up an inordinate amount of garage floorspace, even stacked, which would have put a serious cramp into our summer scootin’ style. We were happy to lend them to a spacious retail shop if they could be valued. It’s kind of like sending a kid off to play at someone else’s house though, I keep expecting the tables to do something wrong, like break in half under the weight of a single vase or explode splinters into someone’s hand or make their whole shop smell like vinegar from the residual stain.

I digress, they’re big tables.

One finishing step that I never acknowleged but will now was the application of finishing wax.

This eff0rt took our wooden vinegar-stained tables to a really amazing (and really smooth) place. We chose Minwax paste finishing wax over a common polyurethane because we wanted to leave the wood as natural as it could be, and polyurethane can sometimes leave furniture feeling a bit tacky, or glossed over, unlike the wax which just made it feel like sealed and satin-like to the touch.

Make a mental note if you’re planning use such a product: Finishing wax is easier to use when the temperature is above freezing, but we were on a time crunch in the days before our Christmas Eve wedding and Pete spent 4 hours in the garage working on the tables with nearly solid wax on a morning that was brisk. It took a lot longer than it might have if the paste was more maleable.

Using both a putty knife and a rag, he scraped the finishing wax onto the surface (and into the beveled creased between tabletop boards) and then massaged over the wood with the rag to distribute the wax and clear excess, finishing by wiping along the grain. The streakiness of the wax in this next picture isn’t representative of the final result, because in truth, the finished tables didn’t really look any different than when we had originally stained them. There was no excessive sheen or change in the stain color. But they certainly felt smoother, softer, and I rub my hands all over them every time I see them now.

They looked really great at the wedding, surrounded by the winning chairs and covered with DIY pine garland, simple white candles, and assorted decor. (Note #1: I’ll share a tutorial on the garland next winter. No one cares about winter accessorizing right now, and I can’t even backtrack into the mood to write about how fun and easy it was. Note #2: We just got out photos back from our photographer! This is one of them, a photo of Pete’s Dad and Julia playing an hour before the wedding.)

Our decor staging worked perfectly for our wedding day, but it’s great to see how the tables take on a whole different appeal when staged for retail.

And we hear that they’ve gotten offers from locals interested in buying them (how flattering!) but we’re not quite prepared to sell them yet . There’s always a lingering hope that we’ll have space for them someday. And if they were to sell (for a lotta money), we might consider making new ones of the same form, that’s how pleased we are with this set.

How was your weekend? Are all of our friends in the Northeast keeping warm? We didn’t lose power or anything crazy, we only had about 18″ of snow, just enough to test out the mad power of our new Toro snowblower. Product review to come soon on dadand.com.