White TO Wood TO White MCM Nightstand

New life was given to this mid century modern nightstand. It was not what I originally planned but let me show you the process.

When I purchased this MCM table I hoped there would be nice wood under the thick shiny but sloppily painted surfaces.

It was the perfect piece to try the Wagner Furno 500 heat gun on. I have seen videos removing paint and was very excited to give this a try. Cold snowy winters here in Canada make wood refinishing a challenge to do indoors with the chemical strippers and power sanding. 

In hindsight I would totally have added an air exchange system in my workshop/garage had I known my future would be refinishing furniture. This heat gun looks like it might the golden answer!

 

The above video is my new heat gun straight out of the box, I was amazed at how fast the paint bubbled up.

Learning curve underway. There are adjustable fan and heat settings.

This video show the end result after about 10 minutes of heating and scraping and the paint scraps, that was pretty easy so far.

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Now for the large sides. I tried with the gun and scraper from same side but it does not seem as efficient but it works.

yep there is wood under that paint

Then got a better system going heating the paint ahead of the scraper then directing the gun towards the scraper as I added pressure. I am a fan and look forward to trying this on a few more projects this winter.

All sides were  successfully stripped taking over 3 hours. I attempted the back but decided it needed some pizazz so popped off the back to add wall paper to.

It is indeed wood but veneer so carefully all surfaces were hand sanded smooth.

Of course almost every piece has at least one minor repair, this drawer needed a piece of the veneer reglued and clamped till dry.

The downside of other people's paint jobs is sometimes they are quite messy. This is the underside of the top that was not easily removed. A customer called this cutie and guess what? They wanted it painted a warm white so I left the painted legs having hand sanded them smooth.

Now that everything was stripped and or sanded it was time for a deep clean. This is a huge step that never should be skipped. I like to scrub my pieces with a scrub brush in a bucket of warm water, a bit of soap and some Fusion TSP Alternative.

Look at how dirty that water is.

Every side inside upside down and sideways gets scrubbed. Then all is rinsed and seeing it is veneer and I don't want any lifting it was hand dried with a towel and left to dry well.

The underside has sloppy painting as well so I removed the legs and gave it a power sanding with my orbital sander as clean as I could.

Much better!

The back was power sanded as well to make a nice smooth surface for my wall paper to adhere to. I like to reuse the original pieces when I can as they are 1: original and 2: cut to fit already.

The wood veneer had many marks and stains so painting it was not a terrible thing after the many hours of stripping it.

To prevent the old stain from leeching thru, to seal in the stains and to save a coat of fancy paint, I brushed on a coat Zinsser Bull's Eye 1-2-3 Primer.

Allow this to dry overnight.

The next coat was the warm white; Champlain from Fusion Mineral Paint. Two coats of this were brushed on in total, this is the first coat.

Now for the back board. I cut the wallpaper to size but wouldn't you know it somehow the piece was to short!!  Good thing I had not done the drawer yet as it worked to cut and fit in it.

Then a new accurate measure twice cut once piece was cut for the back and applied.

Then the backing was put back on and hammered securely in place.

It looks great don't you think?

Now here it is all together but we have one more step so that it will match the square mirror the buyer purchased from me earlier this year. This set will go in her entry way.

To match we needed some dark wax, hello ageing Fusion Furniture Wax. It was brushed along the edges to create that aged look.

Now it is completely done and a perfect match.

I love the classic yet fun striped wallpaper additions.

This MCM table was built by Punch Design Inc Furniture Craftsmen, A Canadian company out of Montreal circa 1965. 

I think it now has many more years of use ahead of it thanks to their craftsmanship and my reloving.

 

Big thanks to Wagner  and Fusion Mineral Paint for sponsoring this paint project. There are no affiliation kick backs for either company just links for your convenience ;)

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