Making a king sized headboard - Part 5

With the frame and trim complete there are only a couple steps left. Namely, create the panel and apply finish. This may be over simplified. The panel includes a plywood back, furniture foam and vinyl. I'm thinking the panel assembly with be similar recovering a padded seat, which I've done. The finish will consist of stain and some form of a sealer, which I haven't settled on yet.

We hadn't yet decided on a color for the vinyl so I opted to do the stain. I went with Minwax's Red Oak hoping it matched the bedroom furniture. I chose the liquid version over the gel. I've found that the gel doesn't penetrate as well and is more of a mess than it is worth, especially if it is left to dry for too long while hoping time helps it seep in to the wood. Wiping on the liquid is quick and predictable.

What wasn't as predictable was the glue splotches I left on the trim. I thought I was being more careful with the glue, but I must have had some on my fingers. There were six or seven of these spots across the top of the frame.

I gave serious thought to just leaving them and hoping it wouldn't bother me. They were small but the more I looked at it, the more I couldn't stand it. It had to be fixed and I turned to Google to help me find a method for repair. I was led to this Bob Flexner article on PopWood's site, three quarters of which are about preventing glue splotches, which didn't help at the time. Near the end he goes in to correcting problems.

First, I tried sanding the splotches and then restaining. This result did not match, so I took Bob's advice and sanded the entire affected piece, just the trim in this case. Sanding stained wood is kinda like sanding Play-dough. After just a few passes the sand paper clogged and had to be tossed.

 

Thankfully, it only took a few minutes to sand the entire length clean and I managed to miss the adjacent parts. Then I re-applied the stain, this time with much better results. After a short drying time it was as if I had never made a mistake.

With the stain in good shape I considered moving on to sealing, but will opt to do the panel next in case more repairs are required as a result of the handling needed to measure for and fit the panel. 

In one week from today I leave for a trip to England for work. The furniture foam is on order and we got a great deal on some nice black vinyl. I'd like to say I'll have the panel done before I go, but my expectations are low considering I thought I'd be at this stage in the project close to a month ago. I bought the wood on August. If only the pesky day job would get out of the way.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Thanks for reading,

Jim