Table Makeover

In my last post, I told you about two little tables I bid on and won at an auction last weekend.  One just needed the dust cleaned off of it and it was ready to go, but the other one needed some work. 

 

On Saturday afternoon, we picked up some spray on stripper called Klean Strip at the hardware store, as well as some chemical resistant gloves and some new masks.  Once we got home, we put down a large piece of cardboard on the driveway and donned our safety apparel.  Adam and I came to the conclusion that getting all of the paint off of the legs of the table would be pretty difficult, so we nixed the idea of refinishing the entire thing, and decided to just refinish the top, as well as the small shelf below. 

 

Having never worked with a stripper before (cue inappropriate jokes), we read the directions and sprayed away.  After spraying a pretty thick layer on the top, we waited for about 15 minutes before using a plastic scraper to scrape off the gooey paint.  It worked pretty well and took off most of the layers of paint, but left some residue.  We sprayed on another layer and waited for another 15 minutes.  After that, it was pretty much down to the original stained wood.  Then, we repeated the process on the lower shelf of the table.  The best part about the stripper was that it was really easy to use and there was hardly any smell, although, make sure you don't get it on your skin, or it will burn (Adam found this out the hard way).

 

After most of the paint was off, we broke out the electric sander and went to town.  Before we knew it, the flat parts of the table were down to bare wood.  After a quick hand sanding, I wiped the whole table down with a wet cloth.  The next day, I used some Minwax to stain the flat parts.  It was the first time I have ever stained anything and it was pretty simple and straight forward. 

 

 

 

After the stain was completely dry, I painted the legs of the table black using General Finishes Milk Paint in lamp black, which happened to be one of the colors we had laying around the house.  If you've never used this paint, I would HIGHLY recommend it.  We've used it to paint our kitchen cabinets and the basement bar cabinets, as well as other pieces of furniture and although expensive, it's worth the money.  It will even stick to finished surfaces without sanding them and you can layer different colors and glazes for really cool effects.  A quick coat of high performance semi-gloss top coat and the table was ready to be displayed in the living room. 

We're pretty proud of the way the table turned out, and feel like we restored some of it's original charm and quality.