Witco End Table Restoration

Mel and I purchased this table a while back from our friends over at M.A.R.K. Vintage. This table was well used and I decided to freshen it up!

The front lower corner had a couple of pieces that broke off that I glued back into place. Those are the piece in the foreground.

As you can see, the top is well worn….that will soon be remedied!

I started sanding the top with a low grit sand paper so I could get rid of the years of build up and expose the beautiful wood grain underneath.

This is one of my favorite things about restoring wood pieces. I love how the grain comes back to life when sanded.

The sides of the tabletop had a couple of places where the veneer had chipped off. Here is how I fixed it…

you can use this repair process on all veneer pieces. The issue you will run into is finding wood that will match the existing wood grain and color. Matching the color can be achieved with stain but there are no guarantees.

With damage like this, the first thing you need is to chisel the damaged area square.

Next you need to try and craft a piece of wood roughly the same thickness and as close as possible to the same measurements. You want it tight so the repair will be a seamless as possible.

Next place a light amount of glue on both surfaces. If you cut the piece right it will have to tap it into place, like I said it should be tight.

Once it is in place cut off the excess.

This is roughly how it should look.

Next, apply some glue on the surface area of the repair.

While the glue is wet you will want to sand the repair area. The sanding will produce dust and friction/heat making a paste that will fill in any gaps around the inserted piece of wood.

Those are some good looking toes!

As you can see, the base is worn and dried out from years of sitting.

I decided I would apply a darker stain to the base to help hide any damage sustained over the years. After I made the repairs to the top, I sanded it all down one more time and stained it with a light stain. After all this was done I sprayed both pieces with numerous coats of polyurethane.

SHAZAAAAMMM!

Since I didn’t have exotic wood for that repair I had to hide the repair by imitating wood grain on the side of the table top. This hides my repair. I think it turned out great.

With the base being darker than the top it makes the top stand out. I am very pleased with how this turned out.