I had a small table that has been lingering around the house for a long time. It didn’t really fit with any of the furniture and was somewhat bland anyway. I forget even where it came from. So in an attempt to save it from the skip or recycling centre as they are known these days I figured I would at least try to come to want to keep it.

It started life as an IKEA table/night stand. Plain pine with a vintage style handle. Being flat pack furniture it was a little flimsy so I ensured that every joint was solid by applying some wood glue and screwed it back together. That done I began with distressing it a little with a wire wheel on a drill and burning it a little to darken some areas and encourage the grain to grant some more character. I’m quite fond of colour and I found a can of used paint on a shelf so I began applying it and gave it some time to dry.

I wanted to give it a worn look, to look slightly aged so avoided coating it too thick and after it dried I went back over a little with the wire wheel and some rough graded sandpaper. I was in two minds to really experiment and try some glow in the dark resin in the recesses of the grain but thought better of it.

Once I’d achieved the look I was after I started applying some furniture wax. Just plain wax. As you can see from the images I left the very top part natural as I thought the contrast was good and it would have been far too much teal to have the whole table painted in it.

So there we have it. A shabby chic (i guess) vintage vibe table stand. It’s certainly got a lot more colour than it had. Perhaps it will benefit from another wax and over time the grain will darken too which I think will improve it more. Still undecided on it but…it kept me busy for a night.