Refurbishing a table

Being crafty takes many forms and this month it is taking on the rehab of a vintage kitchen side table. I bought the table for the express purpose of housing my antique typewriter. The colors didn’t fit my craft room and the legs were a bit too wobbly. So enter my bright idea of fixing the legs and painting the table. Read on for how I worked through this project.

This is the table as I found it. The legs were wobbly and the front left had a bolt through it as it had needed a repair. The top was in good shape but the red didn’t fit my craft room.

The Vision

I recently picked up an antique typewriter at a garage sale. I believe the typewriter to be from around 1928. The typewriter is in good working order but needed a home in my craft room. Typewriter tables are usually a bit smaller than standard table height because the user has to reach up to the keys. I bought the typewriter for aesthetic and functional purposes. I am planning on using the typewriter to make journaling cards.
The colors of my craft room are: teal, citron and white. I recently acquired a cart to house my Cricut machine that is navy. To include some more navy, I decided to paint the legs of the table with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint in Napoleonic Blue and the band around the table top edge in citrus from Krylon.

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The problems

1. The colors of the original table were off so I knew the table was going to be repainted, but how?
   
2. There was also a repair to a front leg that had been done by driving a long bolt through the entire leg. The head of the bolt was easily visible from the front of the table. How to fix this?
   
3. The legs were also loose. The legs were fastened with a two headed screw I had not seen before. One head was a bolt that was fastened to a diagonal metal plate and the other head was a screw driven into the wooden leg. Should I replace the legs? Use a different method to join the legs to the table frame?​​

Red changed to Citrus thanks to a can of spray paint and some masking.

How do you paint legs that can’t stand up on their own? Hang them up. The fourth leg wouldn’t fit so it hanging from a different section of the basement.

The Napoleonic Blue chalk paint went on very easily. Two coats of Annie Sloan wax will keep it safe.

The solutions

Repairing the leg
I removed the bolt from the leg and patched the outside hole with wood filler and sanded each layer. I find multiple thinner coats of filler make for a smoother finish. This was a deep hole so I ended up with three coats and sanding it smooth. Next I had to figure out how to attach the leg to the table top. The other legs were attached with a fastener I was unfamiliar. I called on friends and family for help and was told it was a hanger bolt which is typically used in furniture making to attach sofa feet and hide fasteners to give a finished look. A trip to Home Depot found the hanger bolts after an exhaustive search in the fastener aisle. I had to YouTube how to attach the hanger bolt because there is no screw or bolt head for a screwdriver or drill and no place to attach a wrench. I discovered you need to add two nuts and place a wrench over the nuts to then screw the hanger bolt into the wood. Then use two wrenches to remove the nuts.
Repainting
With the hanger bolt in place, I had to figure out how to paint. I had a can of Annie Sloan chalk paint that I had purchased for a previous project but didn’t use. Chalk paint can be painted on a myriad of surfaces with minimal preparation to that surface so I thought it would be a good choice for all the wood parts to this project. Although the chalk paint can be applied without first sanding, I decided to sand the legs anyway because they had so many nicks and scratches from years of use. Due to the table’s age, I assumed the table legs were painted with lead paint, so I sanded outside and used a mask. To paint the legs which had four surfaces and couldn’t stand on their own, I hung up the legs by their hanger bolts. This was a bit tricky because they would swing in the air, but with some patience it worked great. The other table parts needed minimal masking with tape. I ended up with three coats of paint and two coats of Annie Sloan wax which I applied with a soft cloth and buffed between coats.
The table top was enamel which I had no experience painting. Upon asking a friend with experience, she told me to use oil based paint and make sure to scratch up the metal before painting. After masking off the table top so it would stay white and the table frame so it wouldn’t get paint on it I would have to remove later, I sanded the red band with fine sandpaper. After wiping the whole table with soap and water, I used spray paint to paint the band. I had wanted to use a brush but couldn’t find the paint color I wanted in a can so I was forced into using spray paint. I painted in multiple thin coats to make sure of even cover with minimal dripping. I used a large piece of cardboard to protect my work surfaces and anywhere my masking may fail. I sprayed on the cardboard first to get my motion and then moved onto the project. I finished off with a coat of clear gloss just to protect the project after. My masking wasn’t perfect so I went in with a razor blade to scrape off the paint that got on the white section of table. After the spray paint, I removed all the masking and painted the table aprons just in case any spray paint got on them, I could cover it up with the chalk paint.
Wobbly legs
The legs were fastened to the table with bolts and square nuts with flat washers. Upon reassembly, I included lock washers with the square nuts. These washers will help to hold the nuts in place and prevent future wobble.

The end results

The table ended up great. From start to finish this took me a little less than a month. The hardest part was researching how to do the reassembly, as well as how to use the chalk paint and paint enamel. The actual painting part took me a little over a week mainly for dry time and just because I have little increments of time to do work. I love the results and am excited to have this gem in my craft room. Thanks for stopping by and I hope this inspires you to try a project like this. Have a great day.

Here is the after. From broken and wobbly table to funky and fresh. This table is ready for some typing on my typewriter.

Table and typewriter all set and ready to go.