Before. Looks easy enough.......that's what you think.
Our good friend Frank asked me to restore this French Providential end table. This table had been painted white (not by Frank). White paint is really hard to remove from wood because it seeps deep into the grain. It can be a tedious process getting the paint off. I thought that this would be a great piece for Mel to cut her restoring teeth on. With my supervision Mel started the restoration. Though I know this is not the sort of furniture I normally write about I wanted to showcase the great job Mel did. The first thing she did was apply stripper to remove the white paint. This stuff can be pretty nasty so use gloves to prevent a chemical burn. After you get a majority of the paint off then you must start to sand the surface to even out the finish. Keep in mind that white paint gets into every crevice and takes a ridiculous amount of time to remove. Mel had to use a lot of tools to get all the paint off. We then oiled the Mahogany veneer really well and let it sit for a day. The next step was to apply the polyurethane. Once it dried it was time again for the car wax and 0000 steel wool. I think the final product speaks for itself. If Mel keeps this up she will need to get her own blog and move out of the house. In the famous words of the movie Highlander, “There can only be one…..”. J/K, it was a blast working together on this piece. She did such a great job that we’ll continue restoring pieces together so she can learn about other techniques for different mediums like metal, plastic, etc. I hope Frank is as happy with the way this table turned out as I am.
Here you can see the sripper at work.
Mel had the top stripped and sanded. The bottom was still being stripped.
This is the completed base. This is where a lot of the white paint was really difficult to remove.
Here she is all oiled up and dry.
Ta Da! Here it is all done. Great job Mel!
Hepcats Haven 
YAY MEL!! Great job! My first restoration project was supervised by Dan… it was super fun and I learned a LOT about wood working. My dad is a retired detailed wood craftsman and he made the piece Dan and I refinished. It had been painted a million times by my sister and I as we grew up and changed the decor in our bedroom. I am so proud of you Mel… this is going to be addicting. I am so happy you guys got to work on something together… it makes for a good marriage. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks Sherry! Shane is a great teacher. This was fun and I look forward to working with Shane on future restorations. He said working with bondo and paint on metal is next..Ha Ha. Shane already has me lined up to restore a 1940′s metal umbrella stand. If you have one, I’d love to see a picture of the piece you and Dan restored. We both had a blast working on this piece together and it also gave Shane some time to work on other projects that have been stacking up.
LikeLike
GREAT JOB ! Mel
LikeLike
Thanks Frank! I’m glad you like it.
LikeLike
Signing in from Ft. Bragg CA! (Whew, what a day of travel). Melody! Innnncredible job! It looks GORGEOUS! I can totally feel your sore muscles and exhilaration having finished that coffee table recently. It’s such a labor of love. And as with all other things, you two make magic together! GREAT job! Sending ((HUGS)) from the beautiful coast of N. Calif!
Vic
LikeLike
Thanks Vic! Yeah, the table was harder to restore than I thought it would be. Shane kept saying how hard it is to get paint out of wood grain. At one point I was actually picking paint out of the wood grain with a needle until Shane told me to stop being OCD (because nobody is going to look that close)..ha ha. I guess I WAS being a tad obsessive about getting the white paint out :). I’m glad you’re having an awesome time on your trip!
LikeLike