Table restoration at home

If you have an old table that has lost its presentable appearance, do not rush to take it to the trash. He served you for many years, and rest assured, he will serve on the condition that you devote some time to him. The restoration of the table can be carried out so that it will compete with any designer thing. You can breathe new life using completely different methods and techniques. Let's look at the most popular ways.

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Options for transforming an old table

To restore the old table with your own hands, you can resort to one of the following options:

• Veneering (veneering of an old wooden surface).
• Painting.
• Pasting with a self-adhesive film.
• Decoupage (applique worktops with napkin designs, banana or rice paper).
• Painting using stencils (through paper or fabric stencil).
• Tiling.
• Decor with the help of a potal (foil, which is glued in the form of drawings).

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Materials and tools for restoration

To restore your old table to its former beauty, you will need the following:

• Sandpaper.
• Sander.
• Paint for wooden surfaces.
• Impregnation.
• Primer.
• Primer roller.
• Varnish (colorless and color).

Also do not forget about personal protective equipment:

• Respirator.
• Protective glasses.
• Work gloves.

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Restoration

To restore the old table with your own hands, you need to adhere to the following stages:

• To get started, inspect the table for scratches, cracks and other defects. If any breakdowns are present, be sure to repair them. Check all the bolts on the countertop and legs, tighten them.

Important! The best option would be to disassemble the table into individual parts, clean them from dust and dirt, and then assemble it again. When assembling for better fixation, you can add glue to the attachment points and wait until it dries completely (at least 15 hours).

• Then grind the table with a machine or sand it manually. This will make it possible to align all problem areas that were not previously visible. To remove old varnish and paint is quite a long and laborious task. Strip the surface with medium-grained and then fine-grained sandpaper.

Important! Try to grind the wood along the fibers. Incorrect processing can result in defects that are subsequently very difficult to eliminate.

• Seal any deep scratches and cracks that have been discovered using putty. Dry the patches completely, and then clean and sand the surface.
• Degrease the table with acetone and ground its surface. For these purposes, you can use a universal primer. Instead of impregnating, prime the countertop 2-3 times, completely drying each of the layers.
• Sand the table surface thoroughly again.
• If there are no cracks, chips or scratches on the countertop, then you can treat it with water-repellent impregnation, and then cover it with several layers of varnish or stain. This gives the surface a unique effect of fresh wood.
• In the event that the surface condition is unimportant and table decoration is subsequently planned, then it must be painted. For these purposes, it is better to use water-based paint. Apply it with a large brush. When the paint is dry, apply a second coat.Application should be quick, thin layers. Dry the table for at least four days.

Important! It is advisable to apply dark paint in two or three layers, in order to avoid ugly gaps.

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How can I decorate a countertop?

Restoring a table is, of course, good. But to create a real work of art, you should make the design of the countertop. To do this, you can choose one of the following methods.

Painting

Painting is one of the most popular techniques for decorating the interior and hotel household items. There are several options for painting furniture:

• Fine painting with fine brushes.
• Painting with stamps.
• Painting using stencils (templates).

Important! For glass countertops, airy and bright painting with stained-glass paints is ideal.

Incredibly beautiful painting with tulle or some other lace. To apply an openwork pattern to the table surface, you just need to attach the tulle to the tabletop, fixing it with tape, and paint the table the same way as through an ordinary stencil - using a roller, foam sponge or spray paint. The color of the paint is desirable to choose a contrast with the color of the surface.

Important! On the glass countertop, painting should be applied from the wrong side, while the front side should remain smooth.

Tiled decor

You can update the countertop by decorating it with tiles. The use of tiles on the table opens up great scope for imagination, because today her choice is really huge. For these purposes, you can choose:

• Mosaic tiles.
• Ceramic tiles.
• Tiles made of plastic composite materials.

Important! It is very convenient to work with mosaic tiles. Such tiles are simply cut with a knife. Thus, the excess parts are cleaned without any problems.

The whole procedure will be creative and simple:

• Restoration of the table begins with cleaning the surface and degreasing it.
• Then, using special glue, the tile is fixed on the table.
• After a few hours, the joints between the tiles are wiped using grout or a special paint for the joints for these purposes.

Important! A mosaic of pieces of tile looks very interesting on the table.

Potal

Potal - these are very thin sheets of different metal alloys, used to simulate any surface in silver, bronze or gold. The gilding technique is often used in the decoration of furniture along with other decorative techniques and techniques:

1. To begin, draw a stencil on which subsequently the potal will be glued.
2. Then apply glue to it with a thin brush.
3. Gently lay the sheets fallen onto the glue.
4. Using a soft brush, very carefully remove unnecessary parts of the sheet.
5. The thicker the brush with which you apply the glue, the thicker the drawing from the potal will be.

Important! Particles of sheets fallen, which remained from the design of the countertops in this style, can be collected and used again in the form of powder.

Painting in different colors

You can restore the old table with your own hands by painting it in different colors. This is a very interesting technique that many modern designers use:

• First, cover the entire countertop with one color.
• After the paint dries, stick the masking tape, creating a stencil from it for the rest of the colors.
• Using a brush or roller, apply all the other colors one after the other.
• After the paint has dried, remove the masking tape.

Important! On a colored background, you can stick or draw various pictures.

• Finally, cover the table with two to three layers of clear varnish. This will add strength to the decor and protect against mechanical damage.

Important! The varnish can be either matte or glossy - according to your desire.

Decoupage

Refreshing the old table using the decoupage technique is possible even without special skills. Learning to create masterpieces in this technique is not at all difficult.

To restore a table using decoupage technique you will need the following:

• Pictures for decoupage - you can use ordinary napkins with your favorite pattern or even images from magazines.
• PVA glue.
• Acrylic varnish (it is better to buy varnish in a spray can).
• Napkin.
• Acetone or alcohol.
• Brush.

The sequence of work is as follows:

• Clean the table from old paint, dirt. After that, degrease the surface by wiping it well with a rag with alcohol or acetone.

Important! If the surface is poorly cleaned, the decor will turn out messy.

• Pick up the pictures and make the necessary composition from them. Any images are suitable: for the kitchen table, you can pick up the motives of vegetables and fruits, various colors. A table with motifs of ancient buildings looks very interesting.

Important! If you use special decoupage pictures, then you do not need to do anything extra with them - just stick it on by removing the top layer.

• Place the cut pictures on the table. Mix PVA with water in equal proportions and glue the pictures to the surface in selected places. To prevent bubbles from forming, smooth the pictures with a napkin, expelling excess air from under them. Next, leave the pictures to dry.
• After the decoupage is completely dry, varnish the surface of the table with pictures. Apply varnish in several steps, waiting for the previous coat to completely dry.

Important! The better the operation of varnishing, the more resistant the surface will be to mechanical damage and moisture.

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Stock footage

Restoring a table can help turn an old, unnecessary thing into a real work of art. In order to arrange a piece of furniture, you can pick up any decor option convenient for you. As you can see, this does not require a lot of money, strength or skills - even a beginner can cope with this task.