By Rhonda (shhh!) Iovino

Tom is busy in the shop, so I thought I’d take a minute to fill you in. The bed… our new bed… MUST be manufactured. There is NO way that Tom could have made it so quickly and painlessly. Usually with a huge build like that, there is debate, discussion, defeat, followed by denial and eventually acceptance. (There is no “d” word for acceptance. I checked.)

But that didn’t happen. Yet our new bed is perfect. Can’t be. But I checked all recent credit card purchases and I didn’t see any big payments to Ethan Allen or American Signature. Still… the project is perfect. But he didn’t rub it in.

This weekend, Tom and I did finish the bed with the same lack of dissent. “Ember” was the color he came home with in an all-in-one water based stain and finish, and Ember it is. And I love it. The whole process was simple and practically odor-free.

First, we got out a bag of rags, and I donned some rubber gloves. I definitely recommend the gloves. Not only did they save my freshly-painted blue manicure, but they kept me from standing at the sink for 10 minutes. Tom scrubbed and scrubbed, but the stain was stubborn. Eventually, he got it off his hands. But it wasn’t until the next day. I didn’t rub it in.

To apply the stain, we dipped rags into the stirred quart. I took lots of care to avoid dripping onto the floor. I hate clean-up. It’s not the fun part. As we wiped on the first splash of stain, the wood soaked it up. It looked like we’d need more. but in the end, as we rubbed it in, the dresser fronts didn’t need as much. So we worked our way to the footboard and finished that too. We even had some left over in case we needed to do touch-ups. Now the wood is warm and homey and even more professional-looking.

I couldn’t be happier with the bed and just one day after the staining, which only took one coat, there are NO smells. I would know. I have a sensitive sniffer. But if you know something I don’t about how Tom made that bed so fast and so efficiently, you’d better tell me. I promise I won’t rub it in.