One thing I never thought I would get excited over was tools. I mean, you’re talking to a girl who doesn’t know the difference between a spanner and a…those metal things that pinch together and pull things off. You know what I mean, right?

I actually worked at a well-known tool shop when I was at university. Tradesmen would come in asking about screws and wall plugs (which, for months I thought were called Rawl Plugs!). 90% of the time they would be met with a blank look and my colleagues coming to the rescue. I was just a Saturday girl, putting the items through the till! I think my dad, who is the sort of bloke who would happily spend hours browsing through tool catalogues despaired of me.

I’ve managed to make it this long in my life without needing to use proper tools. I’ve managed to open kids tools with a screwdriver and I once whacked a coconut with a hammer – failing miserably, I may add. But power tools were something that  I never went near. I could do far too much damage with a drill or anything that had a motor.

However, this week, I was let loose with an electric sander.

To be fair, I’m not sure there’s a great deal of damage one could do with a sander. What’s the worst that could happen? Anyway, as of the time I write this, I still have all my fingers attached to my hand and the house is still standing so, so far, so good.

So, what am I, the most un-DIY-ey person on the planet, doing with an electric sander?

I am sanding down our dining table and chairs!

We have decorated the lounge and dining room, turning it from a murky dark colour (the previous tenant had painted the dining room navy blue and dark grey, with a really fetching gold dado rail. Who even does that?) into something much nicer.  It looks much brighter and much cleaner, but it also made our gorgeous pine dining table and chairs look tatty and grubby. The chairs are such a beautiful shape and are solid pine, so we didn’t want to get rid of it. I decided, on a whim, that I was going to sand it down and paint it to give it a new lease of life.

I knew that it needed sanding down so I hunted about in the cupboards, found some lurking and started sanding. Half an hour late, I had managed the patch of a postage stamp. Ok, so it later turns out I was using the wrong grade sandpaper, whatever that means, but whatever. I wasn’t going to do a huge table and six big chairs by hand (although, think of the muscles I would build up!).

Thankfully, FFX came to the rescue. They kindly offered me a few quid to spend on their site, so I chose an Einhell Sander. I wanted something small that would get into the little nooks and cranny’s of the chairs, and the spec on the website said this would do it.

It came within a couple of days and was well packaged. I was a bit worried about attaching the sanding paper because it’s the sort of thing that I struggle with, but it has a nifty hook and loop type fastening, so the paper is easy to get on and off.

It’s done a pretty good job so far of taking the surface layer off and creating a good surface for the paint (probably grey or light blue Annie Sloan chalk paint) to go on. Obviously, it’s quite a soft wood so I have to be gentle with it, and although the sander is small, I’m having to sand some parts by hand. It’s an ongoing project – it’s going to take a while to sand, and then it needs painting and the cushions need recovering, but thanks to my little sander, it’s going to be a whole lot easier.

Whilst FFX probably won’t replace our usual go-to place for day to day DIY equipment, if we needed any power tools, it would be somewhere I would definitely consider in the future.

*We were sent this product for the purpose of this review. All opinions and words are our own.