Weddingbee Blog

It all started with some lovely inspiration… see that wooden platform? I had to have it. Had to. It had that sexy, modern, but a little rustic vibe to it - and I had to find a way to DIM (do it myself). So, I enlisted the help of Mr. Ramen to tackle this project. Mr. Ramen and I have experience with the whole sanding/staining/finishing woodwork process when we refinished (from blonde wood to ebony)/re-upholstered my family’s old dining room table so I could take it with me to school…

Not bad, huh? Yeah, we ODed on HGTV a little last summer… have I mentioned that we dream of flipping a house or fixing up our own place? Yes, we are a little obsessed with DIY.

So, to set about this project, we made a stop at Home Depot, where we purchased some fancy plywood-type boards—we got a huge fatty discount because they were scratched, AND the really awesome guy, I think his name was Steve, cut each and every piece for us! Every cut is supposed to be 50 cents, but I think he took pity on us because it was for our wedding. So nice!

He saved us a TON of time.

We also picked up some Minwax stain (1 can) and luckily had enough leftover stain and varnish/sealant from last summer’s project to cover the last few pieces. To prep the unfinished boards, make sure you sand down the sides and any rough corners to make sure you don’t get any splinters!

Mr. Ramen was in charge of sanding while I was in charge of taking pictures. JK! I totally pitched in - I sanded a stack on my own and put the varnish on all of them; it was soooo HOT! You can’t tell, but Mr. R was definitely sweating in the 113* shade. Phoenix summers rock.

Ta da!!! Sorry I didn’t take any pictures of the staining process - my hands were covered in ebony stain. We had to stain one side at a time and let them dry for about 2 hours in between (during which we caught up on last season’s episodes of Chuck to free up my parents’ DVR). We worked as fast as we could, since it was really hot (and this was in the late late afternoon!) and went through probably 5 water bottles and 10 glasses of ice water. It was definitely a labor of love…

I got up early the next day to put the varnish/sealer on the boards (both sides)… an important step, because that ebony stain has a way of getting on EVERYTHING! Here’s what all 35+ look like in my backyard. And no, we’re not ghetto with broken-down cars in our yard; Daddy Ramen wanted to make sure Sister R’s car didn’t get flooded during the monsoons.

This was all in all a pretty easy, quick, and painless project to work on - hopefully it will have a nice effect for our centerpieces!