Pie Safe Refresh

Last year I was looking for a cabinet for my dining room to store art supplies, extra home decor that I wasn’t using, and basically anything else I wanted to hide away (like that giant tub of my son’s Skylanders figurines). I searched for cabinets online and fell in love with several, but I didn’t want to spend a ton of money.

So, I decided to search Facebook Marketplace to see what I could find. I looked for weeks with no luck, but finally I came across a pie safe for just $75. The only thing was, it was an orangey oak and I wasn’t sure how I would make the wood pretty without painting it. But Shari, my super crafty teammate at Cottonwood Styling, told me about the Java Gel Stain she used on her oak banister, and I thought I could give it a try.

So I picked up the pie safe, a plastic dropcloth, and a bag of old staining cloths. And when the gel stain arrived from Amazon, I got to work.

I taped off the tin panels on the doors, but I left the doors on while I worked. I didn’t want the color to be too dark—just a little more antique-looking—so I knew I would need to work in small sections. I started with the top and worked my way down the front, one door at a time. Then, I did the sides and back. I applied the gel stain with the staining cloths, allowing it to sit for ten minutes or so. Then I wiped it off with a clean cloth. I did this until I figured out how long I would need to keep the stain on to get to the color I wanted.

It was actually pretty easy. I applied two coats of the stain, then I added a topcoat of clear finishing wax, like you use with chalk paint.

Finally, I finished it off by replacing the wood knobs with black ones.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the result. It’s functional, it’s the size I was looking for, and it hides all the stuff I don’t want cluttering my house!