• A dear friend of mine is expecting her first baby. If that isn’t cool enough, her parents just gave her the crib she used as a baby. It’s a 30 year old crib, so she had some things to tackle.

    First and foremost, is to check current safety standards. Are the slats the right distance apart? The correct number of slats, and so on. It was fairly easy to check this out. You can find all of the appropriate measurements here.

    All of the furniture in babe’s room is stained a dark cherry, and her heirloom crib is a light oak. So she called me and my furniture refinishing skills to her aid. After ensuring the crib was safe, that all move parts still work, and that all of the new stains were safe for babies and pregnant women, we got to sanding. We sanded the wood pieces using a high grit sand paper and the Black and Decker Mouse hand sander. Using the high grit got out all of the nicks and scratches (and mysterious bite marks) from the wood. Next is to clean up all the dust. Use cheese cloth followed by wet paper towels. Then we re-stained the wood. Twice, with about 24 hours between coats. This is the same process for paint, just make sure you get a non toxic paint. After a clear coat on top of that, the only thing left to do is sit back and admire your work!