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Trash To Treasure

refinishing drop leaf table, 2 chairs

16 years ago

Hi, Everyone! I just inherited a small drop leaf table (round)and two chairs. They were my son's, he bought them at a thrift store and has now moved out of the apartment and doesn't want them. I fell in love with the table! I don't know what I will do with them, I was thinking of putting in our spare bedroom that is for my granddaughters when they spend the night with us for them to color and play. They are all wood and the table top needs to be sanded for sure. I can't decide whether to stain or paint them. Anyone have any suggestion? I will try to post a picture when my son gets home with his digital camera. I know there must be some really cute ideas because there are some very creative, talented people on this forum, of which I am not, but I can do the work when given suggestions! TIA, Nancy

Comments (4)

luvstocraft
16 years ago
I'd keep it too, those are wonderful, versatile tables. If it were mine, I'd probably paint it white and paint roses on it. But since you are thinking about the girls using it, how about just decoupaging some paper dolls or other pics to the top and then putting a sealer over them. Nice thing is that you can always sand it down and refinish it when they are through with it. If you do refinish it, think about maybe getting a piece of plexiglass to cover the top so they can use it and not ruin the top. Luvs
susiesunshine
16 years ago
Howdy - nanaofive:
Describe your room - what decor do you tend to lean towards, / do you like the Mary Engelbright look or the McKinzie Childs, or something like that for little girls,
or do you want it to be more adult....painted, stained etc.
I think the table as you described it sounds darling!
and I know you will get quite a few ideas ... robolay, luvs,thrift shop romantic, they all have so many wonderful ideas,,, many other Garden Web people men, and women have fantastic projects...
and just sooooooo many creative things you can change it several times.
Thanks for sharing the start of the project with us
Keep us informed...
God Bless !
susiesunshine
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Help identifying drop leaf table
Q
Comments (3)
You might not find anything - many older pieces are pretty unique, and no one has put most of them on the internet. Don't quote me on this, but the wood grain to me suggests pine on the legs, and on the top, possibly plywood over hardwood - you can sometimes see the board edges through the stain if this is the case. Together this would make it a less valuable piece, and probably from the 30-40s. It's a cute little thing and practical, nothing to be embarrassed about having in the house, but not heirloom quality (and even with heirloom quality, if you don't have space you don't have space). Karin L
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Old drop leaf table
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Comments (5)
Okay, that does look like the base and top were "married" -- brought together well after birth! The fact that the pedestal overruns the top support and that poorly applied screw certainly hint at this. Take a close look at the corners of the box the pedestal is attached to. Is the wood lighter there? Does it look like there might have been legs that were sawed off? I'm guessing the top was originally on four legs. One of them might have broken and the owner looked around for something else to hold up the table. It's hard to tell exactly what the wood he pedestal is made of -- hardwood, and possibly something like gum. At first glance I thought it might be Victorian, but the shape of the feet makes me think it was made in the '20s or '30s, when they made furniture out of generic hardwoods and stained them heavily to mimic a more expensive wood, such as mahogany. I think this has been stripped of its original finish, possibly when the repair was made. I can't tell on my monitor what the wood of the top is. Walnut, maybe? If you want to keep the two pieces together, I suggest beefing up the join. Ideally, there would be some sort of triangulating support at the top of the pedestal, but I'm not sure how to do that. At the very least, take them apart and add a larger piece of wood to the top of the pedestal, screwing it in several places to both the pedestal and the support pieces of the top. Then use the table sparingly and carefully. It's never going to be very strong.
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Antique drop-leaf gate-leg table
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Comments (16)
The picture from the bottom does not show the cleat but only some nasty glue work. My urban legend take on this is someone was asked to repair the table. The glue job did not meet with wife's approval. Rather than doing it over or simply refinishing the probably drunken mind decided that since there was probably a table covering why not just sink a strap. Wife would still not be pleased but she could use the table. Given the color differences between the legs and top I am still not convinced that this was not a marriage at sometime in the past based on the color differences in the third picture from the top. The leg that swings has an attached board that is much darker than the board that it would swing against when closed. The leg on the far left matches the color of the table but the leg in the center and the far right do not. Even stranger to my eye is that the leg in the back the bottom portion of the leg matches the table but the upper portion does not. Some of the differences could be from sun bleaching.
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trying to find 2 chairs to fit at the ends of a drop leaf table.
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Comments (1)
Wrong venue..
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des_arc_ya_ya
16 years ago
Don't know how old your grandkids are, but I tore out illustrations and nursery rhymes from an old dilapidated book and decoupaged them to the tabletop. I first painted it with an apple green color to match my 50's kitchen decor. Kids are now too big and the table and chairs are stored! :(

Good luck - let us see what you decided to do.
scrappyjack
16 years ago
I like the decoupage idea. If you do too, do you need any books? After raising 3 readers...some of their favorites cannot even be donated to a thrift shop! I'm sure I have some Little Golden Books and maybe a Beatrix Potter I could donate!

Jackie

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