A Big Mess of Stain

It was a beautiful Sunday. And it looked to be a very productive one. Then, something terrible happened. So very terrible that I didn't have my wits about me. I could only nervously laugh and The Mister only said things like "Oh my goodness!" "It's EVERYWHERE!" "Why are you laughing? What are we going to do!?"

Here is the story:

I was excited. We had picked a pretty stain to use on the hutch. It was warm and bright and a huge contrast to the sand dune paint color. The Mister got busy sanding off the old layers of food safe sealant we had applied. He also used his mini planer that he got for Christmas to help out when the sanding was taking a bit too long.

With this beautiful, ready to stain surface, I pulled out the gloves, a rag, and our stain of choice. I had finished the top of the desk and it was glorious! See how nicely this darker stain shows the different pieces of aspen wood and the grain? But I'm never one for halfway doing things. I had to stain the top part, too.  (We used Minwax's mahogany stain)

Then, tragedy struck. I set the top piece on the dried desk and began to stain. With each motion, I noticed the stain shifting a little until it finally bumped the container of stain. So, I moved the stain to the other side of the desk. Then it happened. With the very next swipe of my hand. I knocked over the stain. I was able to catch it before the whole container spilled, but a good bit still splashed out. I stared in disbelief and just said "Honey...Honey..." a few times. Then, The Mister saw the mess and began saying the phrases I quoted earlier. Needless to say, no pictures were taken of the actual incident because all we could think of was how we were going to clean up 1/3 of a can of stain that had splashed everywhere. Luckily, Lola was not around to become collateral damage. But my lovely kitchen bamboo cart, the pantry door, the wall, and the tile were all down.

Here is a picture of the damage done to the desk after we got our wits about us and had cleaned up the mess.

This piece will absolutely be receiving a nice new coat of paint. But our misfortune brought new knowledge!! We tried several cleaners to get that stain off of the tile and wall where it had dried. Nothing was working. Then, I pulled this beauty out and got to spraying.

Instant stain removal from all surfaces. But we noticed there was a slight sticky substance left on the tile, so we just washed it like we usually do after getting the stain all cleaned up.

Then we laughed together.