Before & After: Maple Side Table

Last weekend at Todd Farm I bought this simple maple side table for $25. The finish was in poor condition, but the piece is solid wood with dovetailed drawers and a simple shape I like, so I decided to refinish it.

I sanded the whole thing down with an electric circular sander to get the old finish off, then used consecutively finer and finer grade sheets of sandpaper to hand sand it smooth. I used 400 grit, followed by 600 and finally 2000 grit to finish it off and get a super smooth feel. 2000 grit sandpaper is hard to find at hardware stores, but any decent auto supply store will have it.

Once the wood was smooth, I used Danish oil as a stain/finish, letting the piece dry 24 hours between coats and using the 2000 grit sandpaper before each new coat. I repeated the stain/wait 24 hrs/sand process three times, and it looks pretty nice. I will add furniture wax in a few days to give it the wood a nice shine.

Here's how it turned out:

And it now has a prime spot in the house next to the couch.

It turned out to be a nice little piece for $25. More often than not, the flea market just can't be beat for price and quality. Is anyone else out there a flea market addict like me?