While out walking the neighborhood, I found a small wooden folding side table out in the trash. And it seemed mostly fine! Weathered, certainly, with some iron staining, and the finish was mostly off, and one of the hooks that caught the folding leg was bent out of true, but I had been considering picking up just such a small item, to take to outdoor events as a place to set a mug, book, project, etc. while sitting in a camp chair.
I asked on Facebook for any advice on refinishing it, as woodworking is not at all my forte. Masters Celric and Igor replied, with words the effect that I should sand it, decorate it (woodburning was suggested), and then polyurethane it. The visible screws and rivets were items they would have hidden, if possible.
The side table as found
Sanding
I had a variety of sandpaper on hand, and used 120-grit to take off the top layer of dirt and staining. As I went, I did encounter what looked like patches of an old finish. Probably I should have gotten out a coarser grit at that point and entirely removed the old finish, but I really rather hate sanding. Hoping that Rustoleum would cover a multitude of sins, I forged on.
I also bent the hook back into what looked like its original position.
Decorative Design
Images of ornate folding stools with zoomorphic legs, painted in black and red and gold, were dancing in my head. Three things steered me off that path:
- A quick flip through the Old English Pentateuch showed more furniture (chairs and benches, mostly) decorated with simple geometric designs rather than zoomorphics (although there were some)
- Low confidence in my ability to execute a striking zoomorphic design
- I didn't want to spend a lot of money on paint and glitz for a garbage table that I hadn't even sanded down properly.
Images of furnishings from the Old English Pentateuch
Shopping My Closet
I already had a nearly full spraycan of brown primer/paint, a nearly empty spraycan of teal primer/paint, and a nearly full spraycan of indoor polyurethane. I did have some black, but not enough to do the whole table. So rather than black/red/gold, I decided to go with brown/teal/gold.
Shopping the Craft Store
I additionally purchased a set of paper stencils ($5) that had some designs that either were period or looked period-ish, based on my survey (and other research here - the main pattern for the tabletop matches an Anglo-Saxon floor tile I blogged about years ago). I also got a container of gold acrylic ($2) and some stenciling brushes ($3).
I saw a thin wooden frame with a beaded border in the Wood Craft aisle that I thought might make a good tabletop. I could nail it down and entirely cover the exposed screws and rivets. Because of the rivets, it wouldn't be entirely flat. On the other hand, I was giving myself good odds of setting a cup down on the exposed slats in such a way that it would tip over and spill. Would a solid, gently domed top be better or worse than that? I picked up the frame.
Painting
I did two coats of the brown primer in two stages (table upright, table inverted) with a few touch-ups. After it was dry, I taped off part of the legs and sprayed just the feet with the teal paint, also in two coats. (I could have used more tape - if you look closely, you can see a dusting of teal higher up the legs where the tape stopped.)
Then - stencils! I picked patterns that appealed to me and covered the sides of the legs and the tabletop with them. I went back over most of them with a paintbrush to give a second coat, more a shinier, more golden look.
The circle/diamond pattern on the tabletop needed more modification. The stencil had gaps (to hold itself together) and, if I'd had a large massed area of the pattern, I think that would have been fine. But with a single row, it wasn't visually clear if these were repeated flowerpetal designs, or circles with diamonds in them. I completed the edges of the circles and enlarged the vesica piscii (the pointy ovals) to match. That went mostly okay.
The top of the table, painted
The side of the table, painted
Tabletop
I sprayed the tabletop with the brown primer, taped off a border and then sprayed the center and edges with some white primer that I also hand around. When it dried, I used some stencils to trace on a design and painted it in with brushes. I painted the borders with the gold acrylic, and polyurethaned the whole thing.
I ended up not using the tabletop. I like how it looks, but the table's top is not actually square, and the tabletop doesn't actually cover it all. There's a little lip of the original top that sticks out on two sides. That just looked "not right." Together with whatever problems I was courting by nailing these two pieces together (cracking the tabletop, moisture between the pieces, etc. etc.) I decided to just decorate the table itself instead, as described above. The tabletop piece is decoratively sitting on a shelf in my office and is nice to look at.
Finish
I also did two coats of polyurethane in two stages (upright, inverted), trying not to lay it on too thick. It's difficult to determine coverage for a transparent paint! I did go heavy on the feet, since they'll be in contact with the damp ground.
It's an indoor finish; an indoor/outdoor would have been better. However, this isn't really outdoor furniture - it isn't going to live outside. It's going to live inside, and visit outside sometimes. It might get rained on a bit before it gets thrown into a tent. I think this will be okay.
If I were being more conscientious or thorough about this, I would have used some super-fine grit sandpaper to sand between the coats of finish, or maybe even after the final coat. And a part of me thinks a super-smooth, shiny surface would be lovely to touch. However, the part that hates sanding has vetoed it.
Conclusions
This is the kind of project that, for me, reinforces the value of developing a sense of the aesthetics of your favorite time/place. There is no doubt that what I have is a modern piece of lawn furniture. But many years of casually looking at Anglo-Saxon art gave me immediate ideas for how to dress it up, and I sharpened those general ideas with specific review of the sources. Then, when confronted with something like a pack of modern stencils, I felt that I was able to select from them a set that gave an appropriate "feel" to the decorations.
This isn't a piece I'd show off for A&S, unless the theme was "10-Foot Rule" or similar. But I'm much happier with the decorated table than the grungy one I pulled out of the trash.
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