Nestled In

Another bigger home project during our summer holiday has been the home office, especially the worktops. We bought the solid pine worktops (IKEA Furuskog) before moving in and applied bee wax on them. The result has not been satisfying as the color of the wood changed into yellowish and the surface became sticky. We have been waiting for the summer so that we’d have the time to re-sand and treat the worktops. We didn’t want to paint or lacquer the worktops, stain didn’t sound good either. So we ended up getting different kind of wood wax that has been dyed. We chose wax because the wood’s texture and pattern can still be felt and seen.

We started this project last Sunday when we sanded the worktops in the backyard. The bee wax had soaked into the wood so the sanding took some time. On Monday we applied the Osmo wax on the back side of the worktops in the basement. On Tuesday we waxed the top sides.  The wax has a very strong smell so the whole apartment reeked for 3 days. Now we are just waiting for the wax to dry and harden. After the surface has dried completely (it takes about a week), the wax can be polished, but we probably won’t do that.

The wax gives the wood a solid surface and should help in keeping the worktops clean. In the last picture, you can see the worktop surface before and after. As you can see, earlier the worktops were dirt and dust magnets. Most importantly, the new white color makes the small room brighter.

Katja is going to blog about the overall change in the room soon.