Sunday, April 15, 2018

Teak Table and Chairs Upgrade

Teak Table and Chairs Before
Table and Chairs After
Every so often we get a special furniture job which requires lots
of attention. This very curvy teak table with matching corner chairs was such a project. I had never seen another table and chair set that looked like this one, with chairs that literally wrapped around the curved corners of the table.

Indeed this was a nice little package of table and chairs which was being upgraded from worn outdoor to being used as a kitchen table.

Chair Before
Chairs After Stripping Raw Wood
My customer wanted a whitewashed look to match her cabinets. I had not used this technique before, but was ready to give it a try. But first the tedious and time consuming process of stripping and sanding had to be done. And wow! It was deceivingly harder than we had thought it to be, because chairs by their nature have a LOT of surface area and these chairs, with their unique curvy feature had an angled corner leg, which created a lot of tiny crevices to get into and strip so that they would accept the new stain.
Chair After Staining

The table had a center support with four branches that supported it and didn't interfere with the way the chairs pull up to the table. After sanding the top to bare wood, the gorgeous teak that was hiding beneath layers of outdoor wear became visible. It made sense to turn the table upside-down and work on the underside that way. After two long days of carefully stripping and sanding the detailed underside, the table was ready for stain. Each chair took a couple of days to fully strip and sand so they would accept the stain well.

Teak Table Before
I used "Coastal Boards" stain, which was actually an off white shade that, unlike paint, wiped off easily and left a beachy style finish which was very similar to the whitewash technique. The finished set looked great, exactly what I had envisioned. The teak took the stain well and ended up with a slightly creamy appearance to give it an updated, modern look to be enjoyed for years to come.

Completed Set in Kitchen



Teak Table After