Greetings!  Welcome back to the blog.  This is the post where I share the experience of producing the “after” version of the Mission Style table.  As a refresher, I won the table at an auction.  I thought she had really great lines and was well made.  However, her all brown appearance was a bit too serious and stodgy for my taste.

So, I decided to give her a makeover.

This is one of those projects that I thought would be relatively quick and easy.  True to form, I find that the furniture tells you when and how the process will go.  That’s a way of saying this project took me a lot longer and was more labor intensive than I anticipated.

With the weather being back down into the teens and twenties, all of the work for this table had to be done inside.  Sanding, taping, and painting all had to be done in the kitchen.  Working on projects in the kitchen can make accessing the contents of the refrigerator or using the stove a little challenging.

To start off, I sanded the entire piece down by hand.  This included the top.  Then I made a few minor repairs and wiped down the table thoroughly.

Initially, I wanted to paint this piece a blue-green color.  I mixed up the milk paint and gave the table two coats.  When it dried, I wasn’t happy with the way it looked.  It just didn’t seem right.  So, the blue-green version of the table sat over night as I pondered what to do. This is the frustrating part of refurbishing furniture.  When things don’t go as expected or planned and you are left with these “now what?” moments.

Upon waking the next morning, I had a plan.  I waxed over the blue-green color to create a “resist” and then went over the entire piece with white paint.  A resist is something you apply to paint/wood of a piece so that paint does not adhere to it. Typically, hemp oil and waxes make good resists. Vaseline also acts as a great resist.

After another 6 hours of work, she was finally done.  The wax resist worked well, and in certain areas you can see the blue-green color peeking through.  Perfect.  Also, the wood top was given a lighter finish.  Here are some additional photos.

 

 

As an aside – I love that flour tin.  It is from England, and it was used sometime around 1920-1930.  It also has the original flour scoop, and the container is such a generous size. <sigh>

 

 

 

This photo allows you to see some of the original blue-green color showing through the white paint. It is a very subtle affect but still gives the table more texture and depth.

 

 

 

Here are some photos of the wood top.

 

 

 

Finally here is a photo of the drawer.

 

 

One final photo showing everything together.

 

 

Thank you for stopping by the blog today.  Not everything goes as planned over here. Some projects take much longer than expected.  At least now we can access the refrigerator and stove.