Home Decor DIY: Two Ways to Refinish an End Table

Tori is a 28-year-old, three-time animal mom and DIYer living in Northern Atlanta with her boyfriend.

Getting Started and Getting Motivation

I love home DIY projects (clearly). I had not done any in a while, so I decided that I needed to start again. To try to satisfy my DIY craving, I refinished a few pieces and resold them after I was done to turn a little bit of a profit.

My boyfriend and I hit the Goodwill jackpot—all of the pieces I have done so far this summer cost me not more than $10 per piece, plus supplies. My first two projects were two end tables. One was $10 and the other was $5. I did these projects simultaneously, because they were both small enough that I could afford the space. Here's how they turned out!

Outdated End Table Supplies

The Process in Photos: The Rickety German-Looking End Table

I started off by taking everything apart. I sanded down the table with a belt sander to remove the old stain, then smoothed out using a palm sander. I didn't have to use any varnish stripper for this one because the sanding did such a good job!

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Rickety German-Looking End Table Supplies

The Outdated End Table

This was the $10 end table. It wasn't TERRIBLE when I bought it but it did have scratches and visible wear & tear, plus a badly fixed hind leg that appeared to have shattered at one point towards the top. I wanted to completely transform it, so I chose to do the base in white and do a bright color on top. After mulling it over at the home improvement store for about 30 minutes, I decided to stain it teal.

First, I started by taking the whole thing apart. When you are trying to refinish something whether it be painting or staining, you should always take it apart because the paint or stain job will look less sloppy. It also makes it easier to get it done in a more timely manner because small pieces are easier to paint than big pieces. This table was very heavy wood held together by wood glue and finishing nails. Luckily the top came off pretty easy, but I did have to let the legs stay connected to the walls because the glue was too strong on some of the connectors.

Once I satisfactorily got the thing apart, I started on the table top first. I started by using Kleen Strip's spray-on paint stripper to remove as much of the varnish as possible. After it set, I scraped as much of the paint stripper as possible and gave it a second try to get more off. Once I got off all that I could, I washed the wood and let it dry till the next day.

When the wood was dry, there was still some visible stains from the varnish on the wood, so I used 80 grit sandpaper paper on my Ryobi belt sander to remove the rest. After the wood was completely clean, I washed it with dish soap and dried it. Once dry, I used a foam brush to apply the stain. This particular stain didn't need a top polurethane coat, so I left it as-is after putting on two layers of stain.

While the table top was drying, I got the legs and base done. I lightly sanded the base with coarse, then fine grit sandpaper, to give the paint something to stick to. I painted the whole base including the drawer with white paint.

After all pieces were dry, I used wood glue to put everything back together, using clamps in places as necessary to hold the pieces together long enough to dry.

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I sold this end table for $50. I already had most of the supplies on-hand and the only new thing I had to buy was the blue stain. I ended up making about a $30 profit after everything was said and done!

The Process in Photos: The Outdated End Table

The Rickety German-Looking End Table

I have to be honest with you on this second end table - I only bought it because it was $5. I thought it was uglier than anything. It looked like it came out of an old lady's house in Germany. It was incredibly rickety and whoever had stained it previously did a terrible job.

I started by taking everything apart. I decided I wanted the table top to be natural wood, and that the base should be a bright color. Using a belt sander, I took the old stain off of the table top. I washed it down with soap and water to remove any residue. Then I applied wood conditioner, let it set for an hour or two, and a protective coat of polyurethane to it. I was able to complete the table top in just a few hours (of course, the polyurethane had to dry overnight).

The base of the table was also easy, but took just a little longer due to multiple coats of paint. I lightly hand sanded with a coarse-grit sandpaper, then a smaller grit sandpaper to get enough grip on the wood for the paint not to peel off. After washing the wood down with soap and water to remove residue, I painted the base red. Two layers of paint seemed to do the job. After putting the table back together, it started growing on me, and instead of selling it I decided to keep it.

Refinishing an End Table Is a Good DIY Project to Start With

Redoing these end tables was very cheap and incredibly easy. If you're looking for a good project to start with for refinishing, a cheap end table from Goodwill is a great place to start.

The nicest thing about starting with an end table is that you don't need a lot of space to do the project—you can do it on the patio of your apartment home if you wanted!

Happy refurbishing and check back soon for more DIY articles coming soon!

For a More In-Depth How-to on Sanding and Staining Wood

I previously wrote a blog post about the coffee table I refinished a couple years ago. If this is your first foray into refurbishing wood, check out that article for a more in-depth how-to on removing old varnish, sanding, staining, and protecting wooden pieces!