Antique Oak Side Table, Flea Market Find

Antique Oak Side Table, Flea Market Find

At the beginning of the month, my sister, my niece and I hit up the 40 mile Yard Crawl in Virginia while the husbands golfed.  Only bought a few items for refinishing and repurposing but we had a fantastic time with great weather.

I’ve already showed you the painted wood paneling signs and a pair of side tables from the trip.  This is my 3rd project from the day, a solid oak, antique side table.

If I fix it up, my niece is calling dibs. 😀   I don’t know if her husband liked it as well, he is more into mid century modern  which this is totally not that.

The top of the table appeared to have taken a lot of abuse over the years.  Lots of water stains, split wood, cigarette burns and no varnish. It was not pretty.

Even though the style of the table was gorgeous, I already had a side table project purchased earlier in the day…it looked like a lot of work…I’ve done a lot of side tables lately…and I’m getting lazy in my old age. 😀 

How much?  $25

I’ll pass.

What would you offer?  $15

Want to split the difference at $20?

No thank you  (for all the reasons already stated).

OK, sold at $15.  My wife will kill me if I bring home the table.

And that is how I find myself with one more side table to refinish.

I always like to do a Google search to see how well I did on my find.  This similar antique Eastlake Parlor Table was listed on Ebay for $150.  It’s in much better condition than mine but I have high hopes.

I also found one for $400, $2,495 and $349 but those numbers are rather ridiculous.  I see other people have high hopes as well. Nevertheless, my $15 purchase is looking pretty darn good right about now.

For any refinishing project, the flat areas are always the easiest.  This top was no exception.  While it looked like the worst part of the table, it took the shortest time to complete.

Sand your flat areas with 120 grit or finer sandpaper.  Any rougher, and the sand in the sandpaper will leave gouges in the wood which will then have to be sanded out.  Might as well start with the finer sandpaper.

Now for that split in the table.

I tried clamping the tabletop to see if I could push the two sides together but there was no wiggle room. I’ll have to do a little more dismantling.

Unscrew the board the legs are attached to.

I’m next unscrewing just half the table that attaches the skirt of the table to the top. 

Sand  in between the boards that separated, to remove any crud that would have built up over the years.

I can now push the two top pieces back together.

Glue and clamp back together.  If any glue seeps out, wipe it off with a wet paper towel while it is still wet.  Stain will not take to glue.

Let the glue dry overnight.

At this point I could have patched the seam with wood filler but I opted to leave as is. A simple, nongappy line didn’t bother me.

Reinsert all the screws you removed previously.

My table was a little rickety. Judging by the cleaner wood shadows next to the legs, the table appears to have lost all but 2 of these wooden braces around the legs.  I cut more from old oak flooring and glued them in place.  

To hold the braces in place while they dried I used my nail gun with 1 1/2″ nails.

No more wiggle.

 

I’m still doing detective work on this piece.  What other issues does he have?

When I turned him over I found all this dried goopy paint on the bottom spindle and legs.

Upon closer inspection of the legs, what I thought was just varnish peeling off revealing dried wood was actually a thin layer of paint.  It looks like someone spilled paint on the side table, wiped off most of the paint never bothering to turn the piece over to get the drips.  And never really bothering to clean out the rag they were wiping with, leaving a layer of thin dried paint.  That lighter grayish color you see above is actually paint.

My refinishing just went from just adding varnish to very dried wood to paint removal and sanding.

On the flat areas of the legs I used my sander to remove all the paint and finish.  

On the inside curvy parts I started with Goof Off which will remove dried on latex paint.  It worked to some degree but I had too much paint to remove and did have to eventually move over to a actual paint remover.  All the paint, even the smears of paint will have to come off before staining and oiling.

This step is the original furniture restoration DIY I was going to show you before I discovered all the dried on paint.

On old pieces of furniture you don’t always have to strip off all the old varnish.  Sometimes all your piece needs is a couple coats of oil to restore the wood.

I didn’t do any sanding or stripping on the skirt of the piece.  It didn’t have any of the paint that I found on the legs and it barely had any of it’s original varnish.

This is after one coat of Watco Danish oil in dark walnut.  The old dried wood just soaked up the new oil.

The top was also transformed with a coat of oil.  It ended up getting 3 coats.  Let dry in between coats and buff with fine steel wool if it’s not perfectly smooth to the touch.

The skirt of the table turned out beautifully even without stripping.

A couple of scratches and faded cigarette burns still exist but it’s a far cry from the stained and faded top I started out with.

And while no one will actually ever see the underside of my table, I did want to prove to you that all of that goopy paint was eventually removed.

The railroad tie lamp is from 2016.  Find that  DIY here.  The birds sitting atop old candlesticks are from a 2024 baby shower.  You can find them here.

 

Right now this beautiful antique oak table is sitting in my living room.  I hope to get it to my niece in New York later this year.

Until next time, stay inspired.