Dining Table Resurrection

I just thought I would post some pictures of my new dining set.

I found a Hans Wegner Heart table a couple of months ago and have been slowly doing it up in my spare time.

It had soaked up several months worth of rainfall, the top was very discoloured and heavily stained, the legs were unattached and smothered in very old toxic black paint.

After sanding, scraping and swearing at it in equal measure I now have it back to its former glory.

The paint had penetrated deep into the fibre of the Beech legs so I had to adopt some rather severe wood bleaching techniques to erradicate the staining.

I decided to buy some Eames DSW's to go with the table as they share the same dowel shaped legs and also the chairs lend themselves very well to a circular table.

That looks great! Might I...
That looks great!

Might I ask how you handled the top? I have a piece that I found on the street on trash night that was out in the rain and I'm not quite sure what to do with it. It's got a lot of water staining on the top, but is in otherwise good shape, so I'm hoping to recycle it.

But anyways, kudos! Wonderful restoration!

The top was in such a bad...
The top was in such a bad way that I just went straight in with paint stripper, there was no finesse to my method, it was a drastic measure but the only way.

I think there was some old varnish on the surface and a clean with wire wool was not going to be enough.

Multiple aplications of stripper then scrapping it off with a Stanley blade, always being mindfull that it is a veneer so I couldn`t go too deep.

love it!
I absolutely love it!

Agreed on all counts. Nice...
Agreed on all counts. Nice pairing with the chairs, cheers, although I didn't totally mind/dislike the black legs.

It may seem sacrilegious to most of you but I actually put a matt varnish finish on the table surface.

I tried an oil finish fist but it still appeared too patchy, once I put the varnish on it evened out the appearance completely.

The varnish suits me fine as my previous dining table had a Linseed oil finish which needed re-polishing every six weeks or so, and I had to be coaster wary every time I needed to put down a hot drink. This is far more user friendly, not the preffered finish for classic Danish furniture but it works.

The black paint had to go, it was chipped and inconsistent, I`m fairly sure Fritz Hansen didn`t offer these tables with black bases but if anyone knows otherwise please let me know.

Thank you for all your kind words, it is a nice feeling to bring a piece of neglected and discarded furniture back to be enjoyed for many years to come.