Restoring a small side table -

I undertook a small project this weekend, restoring a small side table. This table was outside on our pool deck for around two years. For some reason all of the white paint had started to flake off. Because the peeling paint was making a real mess everywhere I had to do something with it.

Removing the paint

I initially thought that as the paint was already flaking off I could use a scraper and remove the paint that way. It worked really well in some spots but in other areas the paint wasn’t flaking off at all. It ended up being too hard to try and do it that way so I had to pull out the big guns. Out came the paint stripper which made the job of restoring a small side table much easier.

After removing the paint I had to give the whole thing a sand. I concentrated on the top more as I was thinking of leaving it unpainted. I used a coarse sandpaper first and then changed to a fine paper to finish off.

Painting the side table

I decided not to repaint the table white and instead went with something darker. Normally I would use a chalk paint when doing furniture however I didn’t have any at home. We had installed some planter pots in the back yard and painted them in the colorbond colour Monument which is a very dark grey. The colour fit in with the white items we had in the garden so well that I thought it would look great on the pool deck. It also meant I didn’t have to buy any paint as I already had the sample pot. After painting I used a satin finish sealer to protect it. I was really happy with the top left unpainted so that also made the job easier and quicker. The knobs that were previously on the table were perfectly fine so I cleaned them up and reused them.