Quick Steps:
- Remove all hardware and put it in a Ziploc bag.
- Sand down the top and the edges.
- Wipe off all of the saw dust and any residual dirt or dust.
- Cover the antique metals nice and tight with tinfoil if you can’t remove them. (Claw feet)
- Paint the base. For this one, my inspiration had a high luster shine.
- I chose a Rust-Oleum Black Finishing Lacquer spray. (Walmart carries it too.)
- Stain the top.
- I chose MinWax Ipswitch Pine stain to get close to the piece that inspired me.
- Seal the stained wood with your favorite polyurethane spray or brush.
- Stage!
Background:
An acquaintance I’ve met through picking furniture, (Mr. Don DeYear!) was showing me around some of his units just full of juicy antiques, salvage and all things forgotten. I picked up some great windows, some chairs and I saw this darling pedestal table covered in dust.
Don demolishes old houses and buildings, he salvages whatever he can. This table came out of a home just north of Syracuse NY. He had found the advert from the 1940s that this table was listed in, in the house!
The house had been abandoned for around 30 years so most of the furniture was untouched. I picked up this table for $20 (he’s very nice) 🙂
When I got the piece back to my workshop, I started researching it to make sure I knew what I had, and that it wasn’t something priceless I was about to ruin! As far as I could tell, it wasn’t.
Now what to do with it? I generally lean toward more distressed, farmhouse style looks as those have the most character to my eye. This piece just didn’t fit that style. I was searching on Pinterest (when aren’t I?) and came across a Wayfair ad that had almost exactly the same table. It was a shiny black finish with a raw wood top and the contrast looked great! Plus, I just picked up a bunch of amazing glass demijohns and I REALLY wanted to stage with one. So black it was!
The steps are listed first in the top of this post. My additional comments; this piece was unbalanced. I looked over all of the connections carefully, hammered (ball pien) some finishing nails back into place, tightened all of the screws and it was still off. After some trial and error, I realized that one of the legs must have been glued back in some years ago and was pushed up just a bit higher than the other 2. After adding a hidden peg to the shorter foot, you couldn’t tell if you weren’t looking for it 🙂
The Wayfair link that was my inspiration 🙂