Rolling Down the River...Stone

So I told you about the shoe bin that Pops made for us, right? Well since he left it blank we were able to decided on a color/stain that we talked about here. We initially decided on Charcoal Gray but once we got to Lowe's and saw the stained wood samples in person we decided to go a different route. B actually ended up picking this color, it's Riverstone, and is a nice blueish-gray. We aren't normally 'color' people so this was a big step for us, but we love it. 

Here are the basic supplies we needed. We picked up a can of the water based colored stain and a can of water based Polycrylic in satin (we still don't like shiny) to seal it. 

We used a brush that we had on hand and old t-shirts to wipe off the stain. Here are the legs that we picked up at Lowe's for $1.50 each. These will screw into a metal piece that we will attach to the underside of the shoe bin.

Since we were being brave and picking a crazy color I wanted to test it on the inside of the bin first before we committed to the entire piece. Luckily, we both loved it and I kept moving forward with Riverstone. 

Here's a better angle to try and see the shade of blue gray it creates.

Ta-da! Here's the entire bin stained, what do you think? We like it a lot. I left the stain on for only about a minute or less before I went to wipe it off. We wanted to see a lot of the grain still and we like how it looks almost nautical. 

I went a little OCD and stained most of the backside as well. When you open the bins up you can see back into the piece a little and I didn't want it to look unfinished. 

And here's the piece up in the entryway. I really really like how it pops against our dark walnut floors and with the white frames. The lamp will get an up-do here soon and we'll be adding more pieces to the wall as we get them. We let the stain dry for four hours before we put one coat of Poly on it. I decided on only one coat, mainly because I'm impatient, but it also won't be going anywhere anytime soon since it's anchored into the wall, so I think it will be just fine. 

Look at all that space for shoes! I'm so excited to get the shoe clutter off the floor. 

 Check out that beautiful wood grain...lovely.

Then it was time to put on the legs and anchor it into the wall. Here is the metal piece that we screwed into the front corner of the bin. 

Here it is with the leg piece screwed in. We added two legs to the front end to give it a polished, furniture look to it. The entire piece is anchored in across the back with two long screws going into the wall so it's really not going anywhere. Before we anchored it into the wall we put the knobs in place so we would be able to open the drawers. So that's why this is the last photo because I want to save the entire piece (knobs, lamp, new wall accessories) for last. So you'll have to wait until Monday!