See how this upcycled antique table base and the recycled painted tabletop came together.
I found a beautiful Eastlake style table base at my favorite junk shop and I brought it home. It was easy to find a tabletop from my wood stash to fit the base. After putting the two pieces together I painted the top and the table looks fantastic.
The antique base was in fairly good shape. It just needed a good cleaning and waxing.
I had two possible tabletops for the base. The first one was a little bit long and it didn’t look right.
The second top was just right. The top just covered the area where it could be attached to the base and the fine details on the table base apron can still be seen.
We attached the top on each corner with screws and covered the screws with wood putty.
Once the wood putty was dry I used my battery-powered sander to sand the putty flush with the tabletop. You notice I also covered the base under the top with painter’s tape. I’m a little messy and I didn’t want to get paint on the base.
The base was dirty and I cleaned it well with Simple Green.
There were a few areas with dings and scratches.
I used a paint brush and lint-free rag with Howard’s Feed n Wax to refresh the finish. The wax works wonders.
I first painted the top with an off-white color I had on hand and then decided it was too white.
I pulled a couple of colors from my paint stash. The two samples are two of many I bought when trying to pick a color for our master bedroom walls. I decided to use the Domaine color on the left to paint the top for the second go-round.
The photo above shows the top when the paint was still wet. The paint dried a bit darker and the color was much better than the off-white. A nice contrast to the stained base.
The next step was to whitewash the top with a lighter color.
I rubbed the lighter color over the painted top using a lint-free rag and wiped the whitewash repeatedly over the top until I got the look I was going for. I also dabbed the whitewash in various areas on the top.
The upcycled antique table base looks fantastic if I do say so myself. The detailed designs are so beautiful. If you look closely you can still see a few imperfections in the wood but overall the stained finish looks nice and refreshed.
In the photo above you can see the areas on the top where I dabbed extra paint in places on the surface.
As far as antique furniture goes Eastlake style is one of my favorites. Who doesn’t love all those details?
The style wouldn’t fit into a starkly modern room design that seems to be popular in some areas of the country. But it fits into my eclectic decor just fine.
What do you think about the stained base and the painted top? Would you have preferred to have a stained top to match the base?
Leave a note if you have time and let me know what you think of my upcycled antique table. Do you like the painted tabletop? Thanks for being here, Kathy
Kathy Cawley
I really like it. Turned out very pretty.
Barbara
I love your table! Personally, I like a piece that has a combination of paint and stained wood. I did a desk with a bookcase top and drawers. Left most of the wood natural but trimmed a portion in a darker green. It looks great!
CC Cole
Good looking table! I like the fact that you use simple Green as a cleaner on wood; I did not think about doing that until I read some of your posts.
Kevin
You did a great job.
We would have used the top sanded, stained, etc. or selected another color the white looks to us a bit to stark like a kitchen.
Kevin