Traditional style, solid wood Coffee Table
Yard Sale - $4.00
Before:
And after some love:
This coffee table needed a few things to get it looking sleek, black and full of beautiful curves. First, it needed a good sanding to remove flaking varnish and to smooth out some dents and areas where it appears a dog took out his anger (assuming that only male dogs have anger-management issues).
After the major sanding (coarse sand paper, electric sander), I secured a broken piece of a curved corner with wood glue. Then, I used wood putty to patch and reshape the previously meantioned dog-chewed leg and the curved edge as well as a few other minor cracks that I wanted smooth.
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After the wood putty dried completely, I sanded by hand with fine sand paper and shaped the damaged leg and top edge as close as I could to how they should be. Then I used Spackle to smooth out finer cracks and imperfections. Followed by another hand sanding with fine sand paper.
Here are the 2 major damaged areas before and after fix up.
The legs needed some simple tightening and then came the painting! After 2 coats of black semi-gloss paint (foam brushed), I let it dry completely and then distressed, or sanded using fine sand paper, around the table top edge, just to bring out the beautiful shape.
Then, some spray lacquer finished it up.
To achieve an even coat of the lacquer on the table top, I first made strait passes with the spray both long ways and short ways. Then, I sprayed a few inches farther away from the table top in all different directions to get an even (no lines) coating.
A beautiful black coffee table with a value much higher than $4.00. It's like I did her (the table) a huge favor and it makes me happy.
~ Chelsea ~
2 comments:
Thanks you so much for this step by step guide of how to beath life into old wood furniture. I have a set of chairs that need some major "love" as you all say. Do you have recomendations on what wood putty and spackle to get? Also do you have any tips for sanding and painting the spindles? I'm so excited to finally get this project done! Thank you so much for this great blog!
Alicia,
It is so fun to make something look new again. Any wood putty or spackle that will harden completely and are sandable and paintable will work. Spindles can be very time consuming, as I learned with my little rocking chair. Spray painting is the fastest option to get them evenly coated. If you wanted to paint with a brush, it is possible, but will take several coats on those spindles. With my rocking chair, I did a coat of brushed on paint (with a foam brush) and then a final coat of semi-gloss white spray paint. If you choose to spray paint, just make sure to do several light coats, keeping the spray tip an even distance from your furniture, to avoid drips and uneven painting. I keep a foam brush near by to immediately brush any accident drips when I am spray painting. You should take before and after pictures of your projects and share them with us!
Hope that helps a bit. :)
Chelsea
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