Scavenger Chic

My Most Valuable Dump Find Ever!

• By Joan
• May 17, 2023
• 4 Comments

Reviving a Pair of Mid Century Modern Side Tables

A couple of months ago my oldest son and his wife bought a fixer upper farmhouse that they intend to rent out.  I told them to hold off on buying any furniture and let me see what I could find, or upcycle, or recycle, or repurpose, in the meantime.  Really, it’s been a scavengers dream.  I not only could hunt  down the furniture deals but I also had a home for all my projects.

There are really so many projects to come, I’ve been waiting for them to move all the pieces into  their new home so I can get you their final photos.

If you have a three or four bedroom house, you need lots of side tables…end tables in the living room and nightstands in the the bedrooms.  So, I was beyond thrilled to find this pair of tables in my local architectural salvage store’s dump pile.

They were rather modern looking, not really my style, but if you add a handle on the drawer and a little paint, these were 2 solid little nightstands.

I have no idea what sat on these tables but the top varnish had settled into hundreds of little dots.

And a lot of the veneer on the fronts of the tables was chipping or peeling.

Did I really think that there was any value in these tables? Other than they were solid, sturdy pieces of wood furniture, heck no.

That didn’t prevent me from seeing if I could find anything on the internet resembling my 2 side tables.  Imagine my surprise , ( 😯 , yeah, kind of like that) when I found this pair of Rway, thats my brand, pair of side tables that sold for $3950! 

They are described as Pair of Mint Art Deco Mid-Century Modern blond mahogany, 1 drawer, shelf, night stands.

Mine weren’t  quite in mint condition, but hey, if anyone wants to offer me $3950 for my set of side tables, I’m listening.

…I’ve since found the same pair on Chairish for $4080.

I started with the tops and my sander.  The gummy old varnish clogged up many a sanding disk before finally getting down to the original wood.

Start with a medium grit sandpaper and finish with fine sand paper.

The sides only needed a light sanding with fine sand paper.

The veneer on the front face of the side tables, especially the table on the right, was peeling a lot.

Unfortunately, once I started peeling one piece of the veneer the rest just fell off.

The peeling veneer may have been a blessing in disguise.  Look how beautiful the wood is underneath the  veneer.  For comparison, there is still a piece of the veneer still stuck on the upper left corner of this piece.

The side table on the left has all the veneer surrounding the opening removed and sanded.  The piece on the right still has its veneer intact, such as it is.

Here is a closeup of the difference. While the piece on the right still had most of its veneer, it too had begun to chip and would continue to chip.  Knowing that the wood underneath was beautiful, might as well remove that veneer as well.

Now that most of the chippy wood veneer has been removed, it is now time to finish these 2 mid century modern side tables.

I liked the light color of the wood currently.   If I applied a clear varnish it would darken the finish like the above picture.  That is just water applied to see how dark the finish would be.

Besides the normal black and white painted finishes, this sand color is currently making it’s way around the furniture world.  I thought this color would be perfect for my MCM side tables.

These are all furniture pieces currently sold by Pottery Barn.

Instead of a white wash, I’m doing a sand wash.  Start with a nice sand color paint.  This is Mineral Chalk Paint by Waverly.

Mix up your sand wash with about half paint and half water.

Paint the sand wash on your piece and immediately wipe off the excess.  Rub the painted finish until you see some of the grain showing thru.  Always paint and rub in the direction of the grain of the wood.

The piece on the left has the sand wash paint finish while the one on the right is still the raw wood.

Apply your final oil, varnish or polyurethane finish and your piece is complete.  I’m trying out a fairly new product from Watco, a wipe-on-poly. I’m not sure it will replace the Watco oil as my go to finish but it was easy to apply and dried quickly.

I still think these 2   could use a handle but I’m not going to be the one to mess with a genuine Mid Century Modern Side table design.

Until next time, stay inspired.

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DIY Nightstands from an old Desk Upcycled Farmhouse Vents Side Tables Painting a Nightstand and Creating an Heirloom Repurpose Bar Stools into End Tables