Road Rescue Side Table

A road rescue piece brought to life with a creamy turquoise color. 

It's nice when a friend thinks of you. It's even better when they know you.  I had a friend grab this off the road and bring it to me just because he knew I would do it.  It had a little bit of potential and I had a little bit of doubt. A 1.5" hole in the upper left corner for starters. UGH.  Wobbly legs, lacking back bottom support, screws sticking out everywhere, wood cracks and the word "CAT" pencil carved  on the top. There went my original desire to do a smooth black top. It was not going to end up completely smooth, so distressing or aging it was a must. So, I rolled up my sleeves and got at it. 

I started with plugging the hole with wood slivers and glue; horizontal at the bottom of the hole and then glued in vertical slivers and topped it with another small piece horizontally to cap it. When the glue set (it was messy dripping down the leg, but eventually slowed down) I added joint compound and wood putty. 

While the hole was patching up, I sanded the top down bare. 

More putty to go. 

Now to color the top. 

After adding walnut finishing stain, the grain looked like I could turn it into black walnut and hide the hole repair. 

Using onyx wipe on finish, I blended it into the walnut color  for the top. 

It worked! 

After getting the top to where I liked it, I put a coat of lacquer on it. 

Knobs from a hutch redo works for this. 

I painted the knobs with flat black. 

A trim piece that I removed from the laundry hutch redo works for the missing leg support. I measured and cut it to fit. Attached by pilot holes and long screws.  

I love this color. This particular paint is not right for furniture, but by doing it the hard way, it worked. 

Painting the table with the chalky paint was phase one. 

Then clear coat with lacquer was phase two. 

Fast drying! :) 

Dried. 

Phase three, getting all artistic, painting in the old distressed look all over the table.  Working the paint into all crevices. 

It took awhile for the little art brush details, so I sat in the sun :) 

Now that the detail brushing was done, phase four... clear coat again with lacquer.  This process is longer than most do it. The popular method is to do paint layers and scrape or sand. I prefer my method, to avoid "chippies".  The look is more finished and permanent. 

Finally done. The longest part of the project was the small brush painting. 

Old, but new again! 

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