How to fuck up an IKEA kitchen island..

Here’s what happened..

Friday Night
We’d won an IKEA kitchen island on eBay – our kitchen is very lacking in storage and worksurfaces and this would help. I collected the unit from a lovely lady in Chelmsford. It was dismantled and looked to all be there, but on getting home there were a few pieces missing. She did offer to buy us things from B+Q to replace the missing bits, but it probably wouldn’t be until Sunday, so I worked out a cunning way to fix it. Yay me!

Saturday
I had to purchase said things to fix the unit, so we had a trip into town to Wilkinsons to find the appropriate hardware. I also got some sandpaper and varnish to sand down and protect the top of the unit which was a bit grubby, the varnish looked fine, and had the colour I wanted on the tin. Great! We had a spot of lunch in town and headed home. As the sun was out I took the opportunity to sand down the worktop, and then apply the varnish, the varnish looked VERY dark, but I slapped it on, happily thinking it would dry lighter.

It didn’t.

The light pine colour I wanted became more mahogany, it was VERY dark. On closer inspection of the tin I think it once had a sticker on with the ACTUAL colour, and the main colour on the tin was just a pretty picture. Fucking great.

The stuff was quick drying, so I let it dry, and sanded it down, hoping to see the original wood beneath.

No.. it wasn’t working, I was running out of sandpaper, and it just wasn’t going back to light wood at all.

Loz and I had a quick discussion, and we thought the best solution would be to get it varnished, and worry about it another day.

The varnish dried, and I put the top back on the unit, and this is what it looks like..