For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a project. And I think I learned something about myself – I don’t like trial and error. I think I can safely say, it makes me crazy.

For example: I purchased this unfinished mantle for our fireplace from Lowe’s.

Mistake No.1 – I should not have gotten it unfinished.

I thought I would stain it myself and all would be well.

Nope.

By the way – Unfinished also means you need to sand it before staining it.

Mistake No. 2 – I did not sand the unfinished mantle before I stained it.

Then, when I thought I got it right because I sanded it then stained it for the second time, I learned it is a good idea to wait for the first coat to dry before you try and touch it up with more stain.

Mistake No. 3 – I did not wait for the stain to completely dry before adding more stain. The second application became gooey, and that can’t be good. If you do this, you have to sand it again, and stain it for a third time.

See where I’m going with this?

To the almighty powers, please give me strength.

I will say, throughout the writing of this post, I worked on convincing myself that trial and error is good, because I did actually learn something!

The biggest take-away for me, is to use a rag to stain the wood. Do not use a sponge application brush.

Thank you February 🙏