Work-Table Make-Over

Dylan turned my last worktable into a bed, so I needed a new one for my new workspace on The Cart. We had this red painted table already, but it totally didn't work with the Cart decor. So a make-over was in order! "How hard could it be?" I thought foolishly.

The first thing I did was coat it in a stripping agent, trying to get all the paint and varnish off so I could have a nice unfinished surface to repaint. I used Citristrip because it's all environmentally friendly and got rave reviews and whatnot. I must have done something wrong. I think I didn't put it on thick enough, or maybe it was too hot out, I don't know. Here's the table after putting on the first coat but before I scraped it off.

And here it is after scraping, and with a second coat on. What a mess!

The second coat definitely got more stuff off, but it was still just awful.

And now it had all this weird residue on it.

So we took a pressure washer to it! That got the residue off, and some more of the color, but it was still pretty awful.

So we resorted to good old-fashioned sanding. College Boy spent at least two hours with a power sander, and brought the table back to its unfinished state. It looked so pretty it was almost a shame to paint it, but I need a tough workhorse of a table and unfinished wood just wouldn't do the trick. 

We debated staining and varnishing, but in the end I picked a light gray paint with a satin finish. It's a little boring, but The Cart is such a small space that we need any furnishings to sort of disappear or it's too much clutter for my already cluttered brain. 

 I made a backboard for it because it doesn't sit against a wall and I don't want any arty stuff to fall off the back when I push it out of my way.

Here it is in its new home on The Cart!

I'm making the first batch of stuff today that will be entirely made on The Cart. Sculpting, sculpting, sculpting.

Whee!