I've been doing a few DIY projects for my business over the last two weeks. You know the drill, find a bargain, then another and then next minute, you need to have a painting sesh.
I didn't overlook this bargain £3 pine table either at a near by charity shop. I love solid wood and being a carpenter's daughter, I don't care for veneer. The real thing is much better. But I knew this would be a tricky one as it was covered in an extremely thick pink paint and although I like the colour, it was far too overwhelming all over.
I always say let the project lead the way when you'e restoring a piece and I originally had in mind to strip it all off, dark wax the top and paint the rest in a calmer chalk paint, but as I stripped off the top, I soon appreciated the little pop of pink it had left on the legs and just distressed it instead. The paint work wasn't to my standard and to keep the colour, I felt sanding in places was the only fix.
Oddly enough, I only picked up a paintbrush to take paint off. After breaking my belt sander mid-project, I realised when I stepped down to my normal sander, I wasted over an hour and turned to the shed for supplies and found Screwfix's Paint and Varnish Stripper which I had never used. I never even knew I owned it (the main reason I'm currently DIY-ing without buying anything new.
Do you know when you realised, "I wish I'd used this sooner?" Well, this was that moment. I brushed over the liquid liberally, left it outside for an hour and it turned the paint in to pink rubbery texture and scrubbed hard with a hard plastic bristle brush to remove it. It still look quite a bit of time, but it cut my sanding time down drastically.
And the great news is it didn't damage the pine which I did fret over. Once I washed it all off, I sanded the top with a smoother finish and dark waxed with Annie Sloan. The only question is, how many people would actually live with a pink table in their home? Hopefully someone out there.
The whole project will be a YouTube tutorial very soon, so why not go and subscribe it my channel to find out when it's up?
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