Coffee Table Makeover

Here are some before/after pictures of my coffee table refinish job. I have a Lane Acclaim series 1960's coffee table that I love the shape of but the piece was stained brown and had accumulated a quarter inch of Pledge residue over its lifetime. I bought a matching end table at a flea market this summer for $5 that was being sold as a microwave stand, so I used that as the test subject before redoing my coffee table.

(Above is the table completely sanded). The first and worst step is stripping the varnish off. This is completely awful, no way around it. I started with all the environmentally friendly stuff and by the end I had goggles and ventilation masks on, using chemicals that started melting my rubber gloves. The end result is not very rewarding, it actually looks like you ruined your furniture but it made sanding easier. After I sanded the piece down, I used a tung oil finish. I did about two coats and sanded with steel wool between them.

As you can see I still need to paint the tips of the legs black like the original tables. I also found the perfect location for the red wire vintage basket I picked up for free at an auction.

this, that and the other

Woke up early to a beautiful, sunny morning-- went to the weekly auction-- didn't find anything too exciting so I came home and decided to work on a few projects from last week.

Yay, the spring blossoms survived the torrential rain over the last few days.
Photos taken this morning. The weeds seems to be thriving too.

I bought a much-needed record cabinet for $7 from the local thrift store on Friday. The cabinet was just particle board with wood legs but it was really dinged up with that telltale crap-furniture 1950's "blonde" faux-finish. I figured I couldn't really go wrong even if I hated the end result so I decided to spray paint it white. Andrew liked the diagonal faux wood grain on the cabinet doors so those were left as is.





I got a cute little chair for $1 (shown below), unfortunately it came with complimentary rust stains from where the auctioneers decided to put rusty dumbbells on top of the white upholstery.

easy upholstery cleaning formula: 1/4 C liquid detergent + 2 C water
Use a short bristled clean scrub brush to work into a lather-- this sounds like an obvious formula but it worked like magic on stains I couldn't even get out with OxyClean. I thought the upholstery wasn't salvageable it was so dirty and it came out looking great, took the rust stains out too. Trying to decide whether I should leave the wood finish or paint the chair.

Yay or Nay?

I have a 1960's hutch that I got for $1.00 at an auction a year ago. That being said, I like it but I don't love it and I want to convert it into a bookshelf in the living room. I get a lot of ideas and I'm really indecisive so I was playing around with it in photoshop trying to decide what to do with it. I thought about a fabric backing but I think most prints would be too much against items on the shelves unless it was a really subtle pattern.

This is what I was thinking of doing, thoughts anyone?