let's get staining, yeah, yeah, yeah...

Remember the lower level half bath and laundry room that was one of the first complete rooms to the house? Well, I just had one project left in that room to put a finishing touch on. The shelf we added above the washer to hold a laundry basket for the shoot was still bare birch.

My intention was to stain it and rub it to look like a used shelf. This project was so simple, and only took 10 minutes, plus some dry time. Looking at what I already had, I found a great semi-transparent stain that would give contrast to the natural birch when sanding. The color is called 'Russet' and has a warm cinnamon type hue. It was left over from a previous project where I stained and antiqued a chalk board cheese tray for my mom and sister.

It took only a few minutes to coat the shelf with my sponge brush, and I set it to dry in our furnace room. After about an hour, it was dry to the touch and ready for distressing. With my medium grit 3M sanding block, I wore away the corners and some of the edges. Followed up by my fine grit block, I went over the corners and also the top and side to add minimum wear. 

When the stain was sanded away, it revealed the light birch color in a nice contrast to the warm brown. The stain also made the wood grain pop to the satisfaction of my forester hubby. The entire color of the shelf warms up the space, and breaks up the light colors. It's the perfect compliment to the white painted wood supports.

Other additions to the space include the leftover hook from the fallen towel hook tragedy, a clock, and a repainted bin from my wedding (recently used as a gift basket) to hold detergent and the iron. After I popped it into place, I contemplated chalk painting it light green 'Liberty' or 'Paris Grey'. 

For now, the distressed gold will do.