Side Table DIY Makeover

We got this side table a few years ago from my husbands grandparents and I have been planning on doing it up for ages! So this weekend I decided to finally do it...

Before..

After!

It is at least 50 years old (the newspaper lining the draws was from 1959) so it has a few layers of quite thick paint, the last layer being white. It also had been topped with lino (?) which wasn't to hard to pull off, but under that was a layer of cardboard which was not easy to get off. It also exposed the first layer of paint, which I really liked!

After doing a bit of googling, I found that it might have asbestos in it.. which is never good.. So it was time for gloves and a mask! After drenching the card with water (to stop any dust) I used paint stripper which worked a treat! Then it was time to stripe the rest..

  Once I got back to the wood, which was beautiful Rimu, you could see all the dings and marks in the legs and on the top, which were still filled with paint. I love that look, so instead of getting it right back to wood, I left it like that. Then all I had to do was finish it with linseed oil & turps mix and paint the draws!

And done!