Marrying 1940's Antiques

by Kathy Lucas

I love antique furniture and the table was a 1949 number which originally had a glass inset on top. Poor little thing was sitting unloved in my attic for the past 8 yrs. since my mom passed away. She had a picture of me sitting on it as a child.

The top view shows it's state when I brought it downstairs a few months ago and debated what to do with it. Well, two weeks ago I decided to sand it all down except the insets and the top, using my little mouse sander and some good, old fashioned elbow grease.

The sanded areas got a coat of Burnt Sienna transparent stain rubbed in with a sponge, being careful to wipe it out of the insets.

Then I decided to use my uncle Donnie Ray's 1940's marbles. He was Mom's brother and passed away at age 12 in 1948.

Now came the tough part. I glued each marble to the tabletop, trying to blend color to color. I was adament about trying clear resin on a project and this was perfect for that. First though, I ran masking tape around the top in case it came above the edge.

I carefully followed directions, mixing two quarts of resin to hardener, then pouring over the surface, spreading and tilting table gently to reach all areas.

In my eagerness, I forgot to tape off under the edge of the top, silly me, and resin started dripping down the sides and legs.

What to do??? Well, I just started to spread it around all over sides and legs until it stopped dripping.

And voila! My new old coffee table is completely coated with clear resin, giving it a hard coating I don't need to wax or worry about restaining. And I think it looks great.

Project completed in 10 days at a cost of about $55 for resin.

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Paul Spicer on Jul 27, 2020

$55 cost of resin? How much was used and what kind of resin?

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Sasha on Mar 11, 2017

Lovely, you never know when you're making a memory, love it so different

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Marci Murdoch Flanagan on Jul 12, 2017

This coffee table is exactly what my husband and I are looking for! You are so lucky you had it in your attic! We bought end tables that match your table exactly, but have had no luck finding a coffee table to match.

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