Home With Tess: The DIYs I’ve loved before

Throughout my time writing this column, I’ve detailed the trials and tribulations behind many of my DIY projects. But I must confess there are some projects I’ve kept hidden in the closet — or, perhaps more accurately, in my garage.

Sadly, our garage has been less of a place to house cars and more of a furniture graveyard — a place where DIYs go to die.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a hoarder, per se. I’d just say I’m a little overly ambitious. (My husband may have another word for it, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Home With Tess: Three simple projects for a cozy fall home

Most of the half-finished projects I keep hidden away are old furniture pieces I think I can refurbish. Where these delusions — ahem, ambitions — stem from, I do not know. Perhaps it’s the fact that my dad taught himself how to make his own furniture, so surely I could at least teach myself how to refinish it.

But with many of these furniture projects in particular, things tend to go awry.

There’s the disassembled desk, which serves as a constant reminder of not only my stockpiling tendencies but also my inability to speak up.

Last year, I scoured Facebook marketplace for an L-shaped desk and found one that I had planned to make over with paint and contact paper. But when I went to retrieve it, I met a man who was grieving the loss of his father and in the midst of selling all his things.

I talked to him as he took apart the desk to help me fit it into my car. He was only trying to be helpful, but the more he talked, the more he disassembled, and I didn’t have the heart to ask him to stop.

By the end, I had paid $75 for a bag of mixed screws and some pieces of plywood that I have not even attempted to put together.

Home With Tess: See what sticks with this secret DIY weapon

Then we have the dining table I picked from my neighbor’s trash. I thought I had hit the jackpot. It was worn, but it was solid wood, and the shape was just what I was looking for. I figured it just needed a little sanding and a fresh coat of stain to be good as new.

I spent, without exaggeration, weeks (and more than $100) trying to make this table look presentable. I researched endlessly how to refinish furniture. I bought chemicals that I couldn’t even find at a local hardware store to try to remove the deep, blackened water stains on its surface. I sanded and applied paint stripper and applied stain and applied a bunch of other stuff that was completely foreign to me. Every morning after I worked on my table, I’d head out to the garage with fresh optimism that somehow, after things had dried, it would be a showstopper. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.

Someone wound up buying it from me for $20, but I sometimes think I should have paid them $20 for taking it off my hands.

Home With Tess: Five houseplants that could probably survive nuclear fallout

You’d think I would have learned my lesson after that, but alas, for my next attempt, I decided to go bigger.

I found a set of two end tables and one coffee table that are totally funky and very reminiscent of the 1980s (a decade that has crept its way back into fashion as of late). With all the materials in hand, I figured I’d give flipping furniture another go and attempt to make a profit.

So far, the only progress I’ve made is moving it from my car into the garage.

Whew — it feels good to get that off my chest. (Who says therapy isn’t free?)

Home With Tess: Design lessons from a newborn

I think the main takeaway here is that it’s best not to take on more than you can handle.

This doesn’t mean, however, that I’ve given up attempting to refinish furniture. In fact, I’ve been working on a piece that we’ve had in our kitchen for years, and I’m excited to share the results with you in the next column.

In the meantime, if anyone wants a desk broken up into about 100 different pieces, let me know.

Email your questions to Theresa "Tess" Bennett at homewithtess@gmail.com and keep up with Tess on Instagram @homewithtess.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Home With Tess: Trials and tribulations of do-it-yourself projects