A subtle Oak, with a hint of dampness

I confess. I think I have an addiction to sand paper. I keep sanding things like desks and manrobes. Now I've gone and got a table to restore to former glories.

Another sweet deal from Trade Me, this nice Oak Table has kept me busy for the last couple of weeks.

Here's the restoration journey in pictures and some wooden attempts at whimsical prose.

We picked the table up from someone's storage shed and I got the feeling the table had been exposed to a little dampness. I started with the table top as that's easy pickings, using an old sander recently given to me by my Cousin. The stain came off very easy and what was exposed felt a little damp. I left it to gain some exposure to the drier climes of the living room fire and began to work on the other parts of the table.

I turned by attention to the legs of the table at which point the sander started sparking bright flashes, hissing like a cat cornered by the Vet and smoking like Thomas the Tank engine after a hot date so I went inside and watched Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy which was thoroughly entertaining spy film starring  Commissioner Gordon.

I wondered if any spy had ever been tortured with an electric sander to the face and then I went to bed.

I returned later and sanded the shit out of the table and chairs with my trusty Ryobi.

Chairs.

I don't think I'll ever be able to sand another chair for a while. They are really tough. Worse is the staining. So damn fiddly.

So the table and chairs were duly sanded and stained with a mahogany colour and the Oak wood responded marvellously and gave a orange like colour which I describe as Tiger.

The final part of the restoration was to cover the chairs. I got some nice leather-like chair covering from Spotlight (first willing trip to that place ever!), some hessian from a shopping bag a guns stapler.

Who knew gun staplers where so much fun? 600 hundred staples later, the chairs were presentable enough for Queen to sit on. Well kinda, my first effort was pretty rubbish, the final chair to be covered was pretty good!

Costs of the renovation:

Table and Chairs $180 from Trade Me
Stain - $50 bucks from Bunnings
Sand paper - $20 bucks from Bunnings
Chair covering - $35 bucks from Spotlight

All up $285 bucks which is a steal compared to buying the same thing in a fancy antique store somewhere where in Petone.

Here's the table in it's extended mode. It's like the Transformer of the table universe....

Did you know you can also add oak to your homebrew for better flavour?