those medallions

To be completely honest, I wasn't crazy about those medallions or whatever you want to call them on the drawer fronts. They just looked too crispy, too foreign on there. However, I was pretty sure I could make this work. I showed hubby, who assured me that they were going to flake right off as soon as I hit them with sandpaper. I pooh-poohed his nay-saying, and started trying to reign them in this morning.

As you can see, the spackle had dried in very definite lines - which is okay, if that's what you are looking for, but I wanted something a little more subtle. I was not as pessimistic as hubby. I believed I could use foam-mounted sandpaper to very softly and subtly make this more pleasing to my eye.

I started out slowly to get a feel for what the material could take. It definitely didn't flake off, although it didn't take much to make it more like what I was thinking. 

After figuring out how hard to press and how much I could do with taking the edges down, I went to town on the rest. They look like I decimated them, but I didn't. They were much more to my liking once I took that extra dust and powder off!

The other problem I was having was with the dresser top - my ebony stain was not coming out ebony. I am up to three coats, with a very light sanding between the second and third. We've agreed that it is acceptable. I have noticed that there are spots on the top where I had sanded it more than the rest, apparently, to get the stains out - they are taking more of the stain in. I must have gotten down to a little bit deeper layer of the wood. Weighing out my options of trying to take it all down to a deeper level and restaining, painting it instead of leaving it natural wood, or leaving it as is, we're going with leaving it as is. I think it will still be beautiful.

The other step I took today was to throw a coat of primer on the cabinet. I just really, really want to see how this is going to look! I didn't have time today to paint the drawer fronts, and I left the legs of the base unpainted even though they will also be white, because I didn't feel like being that close to the floor with my face, to see what I was doing under there, but I think you can agree this is showing promise!

I'm giving this a full day to dry, because we're heading to the fair tomorrow. It might get even more than a day, because we have a family reunion the following day - hope you enjoy your Labor Day weekend!