As a lot of you know my mother has been gone for a long time (Sept 1, 2004) and it has taken me all this time to finish clearing out her house. The furniture that we never took out years ago had seen much better days so I was a bit surprised when Shawn asked for this old table. It had been in front of my mother living room window for years and it had once been very pretty. I said once! We original left it in her house because the leather top was stained badly and we didn’t know were to put it in our house.
When Shawn asked for the table it was in even worst shape! Ground hogs had gotten into the house and gnawed on the legs and the table was covered with years of grime and dirt. I much say I looked at him strangely and asked if he was sure. Yes. I said, “Okay but not in this condition. I ‘ll redo it first.”
That turned into quite a chore. First I had to clean and disinfect the whole table before I would even leave it into my garage. Yes, it was that bad!
The next step was to sand all the gnawed places and reshape the damaged legs. I used the electric sander to get the worst part and finished my hand.
Once that was finished it was time to remove the original varnish which proved to be harder than usual. I am not sure what type of finish was on it but it took one and a half cans of Minwax Antique Furniture Refinisher. The kitchen table I did last year took this amount and it was bigger!
One all the old finish was off and the piece sanded again it was time to start staining. I started off with two coats of Minwax early American but it never gave me the color I wanted so I topped it with a light coat of Minwax special walnut and got the color I wanted. I topped the table off with two coats of Minwax gloss polyurethane.
Doesn’t look bad from the distance but up close that “leather” top was cracked ,chipped and stained. I tried cleaning it with saddle soap, leather cleaner and oiling it – nothing worked. Oh, it gave it a wonderful shine but all that cracking and staining were still there.
Shawn liked the table and asked it I could put a fabric cover over the top. That told me he wasn’t completely thrilled with the table top so I want shopping! I had an idea so I worked the aisles at Home Depot until I found what I was looking for – a thin vinyl tile that looked like marble. My next problem was how to attach it to the leather. A quick internet search said to soak a cotton ball in alcohol and clean the leather before gluing the tile on. Easy enough – but wait – the alcohol loosen the leather so that it pulled right off! I now had a super clean area to glue my tile too plus it was now the correct height for my original idea of using mosaic tiles as a border around the marble tile.
I laid out the mosaic tiles and glued them down and then want out and weeded around the house.
The next morning I measured the marble color tile and cut it to size using my razor knife. I pulled the paper backing off and glued it onto the table top. Another wait time for it to dry. And 24 hours later – I grouted the table top. I love the way the tabletop turned out!
The final table looks so much better than the original table. I am glad Shawn wants to display it in his house and I am super happy with the new look – he will not have to cover it with a table cloth now!
DIY with Kathy! 