My favorite thing about refinishing or re-purposing an old piece of furniture is the satisfaction I get afterwards. Quite often when I find a piece of furniture that is pretty beat up and/or ugly I start to doubt that it could ever be beautiful again, and all throughout the refinishing process I'm constantly second guessing why I'm even wasting my time. But then the end result comes and there is nothing more rewarding than seeing that you saved a piece of furniture from a landfill and made it useful again... and for little or no money. It's even more rewarding than getting through putting together a big piece of Ikea furniture without murdering your spouse in the process.
Oh wait, please tell me I'm not the only one?? I start to break out in hives just from looking at one of Ikea's direction pamphlets... and people should stay far away from me until it's over. ;)
While I do think there is a time that certain things should get thrown away, I think it happens far too soon far too often. Furniture now is almost never made with as much quality as it was in the past, at least not for an affordable price. So if you do refinish something, it will probably end up lasting even longer than buying something brand new at one of the big furniture retailers today.
The other day I found an amazing rare Dixie Dresser from the 1960s at the thrift store around the corner. I wasn't on a quest for a dresser that day, but have been casually looking for a well made one for our master bedroom for months (years even?)... so I snagged it up and I'm excited to tackle that project. The only downside of being a pregnant DIYer, is that there are certain steps to refinishing furniture that I can't do because of the fumes... which means the first and last steps I need help from Tate on, and with his already busy schedule that means waiting. (tick tock) If I wasn't pregnant the piece would have been started IMMEDIATELY. I also have a fireplace mantle for our master bedroom that I need his help on starting, and that's been sitting in the garage for four months. Sooo... yea. Someday. Hopefully before the kids graduate from high school.
While thinking of the dresser I started looking at a couple of past projects I had finished right before getting pregnant... back when the fumes only poisoned me and not my unborn child. This particular project was an incredibly easy DIY. Perfect for beginners just starting out on their first piece.
What I've learned from the past, when I first was learning to re-do furniture was it's important to do all the right steps and take your time. Otherwise you'll have a project that will be chipping within a couple of years and just not look that good. If you follow through the right steps it should hold up to years and years of use. The thing is, the steps may seem overwhelming, or even costly if it's your first project and you need to get every supply all at once, but these steps are quick, easy and really inexpensive because the materials last forever.
Almost every project needs a light sanding before getting started, the degree of how much you sand depends on the piece and what your end result will be. The only time it needs to be more than a light sanding is if you are planning to re-stain the piece, then you may need to use a stripping agent first to remove old stain and laquer, and then use a palm sander to get the wood completely bare again. If you're planning to paint the piece you really just need to lightly sand to rough up the surface a little so the primer or paint adheres better.
I use an oil based primer with any furniture project, UNLESS I'm going for a distressed look where I actually want some of the wood to show through the paint. An oil based primer like Cover Stain is full of fumes but is incredibly important in getting a professional result and making sure no wood grain bleeds through over time. If you skip this step your project may look good at first but after 6 months or a year the wood grain may start to actually show through your paint and ruin all that hard work you just did. Zinnser or Kilz both make good oil based primers. And this is an item you will re-use throughout many project, so the cost is actually really low.
After those steps you obviously would then paint your piece. Doing 2-3 really thin coats is always a better idea than slapping it on too thick and trying to get good coverage right away. There are several types of paint you can use... chalk paint, milk paint, regular latex wall paint in any sheen you want. It's all personal preference and depends on the look you're going for in the end.
After painting is done and you have your piece looking exactly like you want it, meaning if you're distressing the piece for a shabby chic or rustic look you would have already done that, then it's time to protect the work you've done. You can use a wax or a polyurethane to protect the piece. It's personal preference mostly and may depend on the specific piece. Wax is sort of trendy right now, but I actually prefer working with Poly most of the time. This step is very easy, but completely changes the durability of your piece. Putting on 2-3 thin coats of Poly at the end will give your piece that finished touch. I typically use a Satin sheen for Poly, because it gives it a light shine without changing the look of the piece and making it too glossy. After it's protected with Poly you don't have to worry about it chipping as easily and it's protected from water marks or damage. I also think it takes away some of the tacky feel of dried paint. It's smooth like butter!
This piece was actually a free table given to me by my mom's neighbor. She had originally had purchased it with plans to re-do it herself, but when she realized she just didn't have the time at this point to do the project she thought of me. My favorite kind of piece is a FREE piece! The table was a vintage gate legged drop leaf table. It was a wood piece that looked like it had been kept in storage too long, it had water damage, warped and cracked wood, and neither leaf would lift anymore because the hinges had been bent and almost ripped off. I have no idea how it got that bad... it actually had tire marks on it like it had been run over as well.
The first couple of weeks after she gave me the table I kept pulling it out of storage, and then putting it back in thinking there was no way I could salvage the poor little table. After giving it a few weeks, I started thinking how nice it would be to have a small table or bar cart to put between our windows right off of our dining room. A table to put a drink tray on at parties, to store some wine upstairs so that we're not walking downstairs to the bar every time we need some, and another place to have a lamp for some soft light in the evening. I pulled the table out of storage and it seemed to be the perfect fit, and the bonus was that, with both leaves up, it could double as extra seating for guests if needed. At this point we only have room for 6 to eat in our kitchen, at the dining table. We're planning to knock down the half wall in our kitchen and add new counter tops that will overhang along the whole peninsula, adding an extra 6 spots to eat. But that may not happen until next year at the rate we're going, and at this point we just don't have that much room for entertaining. This table seemed to be the perfect solution.
The table was beyond re-staining, the wood was just too beat up. So I decided to paint it black, but I wanted it to be a distressed black with some vintage patina and wood showing through. I think every room needs something black in it and this tied in nicely with the other colors and woods in the area.
Project Supplies:
- Table Free
- Wood filler $2
- Finishing nails already owned
- Sand paper already owned
- Taupe paint leftover from another project
- Black paint $3 (Behr sample can)
- Hinges $4
- Polyurethane already owned
Tools Needed:
- Hammer
- Paint brush
- Putty knife
Total Cost: $9
The first step was to nail down any wood that was warping and pulling away from the rest of the table. I normally wouldn't do this, but there was a sheet of wood pulling away in spots on the top, and the only way to fix it was to nail it down. I made sure the nails went deeper into the wood than the table so that I could fill them in in the next step, making the nails disappear altogether.
**As you can see I was working on this in my kitchen, which is not normal, but Tate was working on another project in the basement work room and the garage was WAY too cold thanks to the MN winter. I just layed down newspaper and cleaned up as I went.**
The next step was the most important, and lengthy step of "fixing" this table. Filling in all those horrible cracks in the wood. I used Elmer's Wood Filler, and a putty knife, to smooth wood filler into each and every gap. As it dried I would smooth it slightly and then lightly sand it to smooth it out. Once it was sanded once I went over a couple of the really bad spots with wood filler again and then lightly sanded again. The key is to LIGHTLY sand so you don't mess up the wood filler. It helps to close your eyes and run your hand over the surface to test how smooth it is, because our eyes can play tricks on us.
Once I was happy with the smoothness of the table top, I was happy to move on to more fun steps. I wanted a lighter color to show through some of the black after distressing, so I looked at my leftover paint stash and grabbed some Behr Studio Taupe paint that was leftover from our entry way walls. I took and brush and messily painted this on, making sure to make it patchy and only cover certain parts and leave wood showing on others.
The next step was to paint the piece black. I wanted the legs to look extra distressed, but leave the table top somewhat smooth, so I used a paintbrush on the legs, and kept the paint minimal to keep the brush a little dry as I painted it on. I made sure not to do anything to perfect at this point. Once I got to the table top I used a small foam roller and painted the black paint on for a smoother, but thinner finish. Sometimes a brush is hard on a flat surface, so I like using a roller and then brushing over it with the brush to smooth it.
The next step was to remove the old broken hinges and replace with ones that worked. In order to do this I layed the table flat upside down once it was dry and simply screwed hinges in. I used 4 total hinges, two on each side. That was plenty to securely hold the leaves. This step is incredibly easy, don't let a piece that needs to be re-set scare you. There's really no way you can mess this up.
After the table was dry and hinges were reset, I distressed some of the edges with sand paper until I was happy with the appearance. I distressed parts of the legs that stuck out more or the corners, as those would naturally wear faster. For the table top I did minimal sanding along the outter edge of the piece. After this I put Polyurethane on the piece and was done! As you can see in the picture above and the ones below, Poly has already been applied giving it a light sheen.
Look at how smooth that table top is, nothing like it was before! Proof that a little time and patience with wood filler actually works wonders. Several months later the table top still looks exactly like this, smooth and free of any cracks.
The table looks like this on a daily basis, with absolutely no wine being consumed these days! I love having more lamp lighting at night in this area, and for parties it's easy to switch out the dried flowers for fresh and put a special cocktail on the serving tray... there's also plenty of room for an appetizer plate or two. I'm so glad I didn't give up on this little table... and for $9 of materials and about 4 hours of time, it's a great piece in our {slowly coming together} home.
And yes it does bother me that the floors change from cheap linoleum to carpet right under the table, but I'll survive. ;) Down the road we're planning to put hardwoods throughout that entire area... some day once we've updated the kitchen. You know, when life slows down and we have time for all that nonsense. 2019??!!
** A friend asked about the sunburst mirror. I actually made that with Bamboo shoots and a craft mirror from Michael's. I think the total cost was about $15 or less after a coupon. I just cut the bamboo down to various sizes and glued them to the front of the mirror, using 3M command adhesive strips to hang it on the wall. I love the way it adds texture and pulls in the bamboo from our roman blinds in the living room. **
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