Night Stand

I wanted to show you what I did with the table top that was used to try different spraying techniques. The center of the top is ash veneer on plywood and the surrounding wood is a figured cherry veneer on plainsawn cherry. I ran out of cherry for the legs and was wondering how close I could match the color using poplar. I sprayed the same red dye as I had used on the cherry, then sealed it by spraying with clear shellac. Finally, I used a water-based finish. The whole finishing process took less than three hours of which two and half were waiting for the wood to dry.

The wood surface on the legs is a little rougher than I want. The water in the dye has caused some of the wood fibers to raise. I could have tried sanding it lightly after applying the shellac, but I was concerned about removing some of the stain. Next time I will first spray the wood with water and sand it smooth after it dries.

I'm please with the poplar and feel that I could have applied veneer over it on the table top and saved some money.