The story of these tables is kind of a funny one. I’m not sure what their original state was. All I know is, once I got them they were fully lacquered and shellacked. Now, I don’t want to go about telling you what you should or should not like. I’m just saying the last time I enjoyed lacquer it was the 1980’s and I was dying for a full set of black lacquer furniture – which I finally got about 10 years later. A decade too late.
So these days, when I see lacquer, it kind of brings back bad memories. And these tables were no exception.
Add to that some painting pet peeves, like the one pictured above and their previous finish, had to go!
I thought about doing something drastically different with their new finish. After all, I wondered if you couldn’t see them before AND after – in person – how much of a difference would you really be able to tell?
You wouldn’t be able to see yourself in the mirror-like surface of the shellacked tops. Shiny tops aren’t so bad. On some things. But I’m really more of a matte kind of gal myself.
And you wouldn’t be able to feel that somehow never-ending tacky feeling that lacquer can leave behind.
But this you could see and it’s another one of my pet peeves. Granted it’s the underside of the table top and you probably wouldn’t see it all that often but I wonder, if you bought this table and it was like this, wouldn’t you be disappointed that someone didn’t take more time, pay more attention to details?
Once all of the shellac was removed you could see the true beauty of the wood underneath. I love it’s naturally worn look.
Then I covered the lacquer in La Craie {The Chalk} Furniture Paint in Wrought Iron.
Added a healthy dose of distressing…..
…and some burlap knobs for good measure and, Voila’, updated, modern and reminiscent of one of my favorite inspirations – Pottery Barn!
Much better, right?
beautiful tables!!
Nice job, Jamie!
I think these are terrific, Jamie! What a nice job, and those knobs are a perfect finishing touch.
Love the tables!
These look awesome! Love the knobs and the while vibe of the distressed tables! I wanted to mention though that lacquer is technically a polyurethane finish and can come in matte finish. I use it regularly. It’s very different than shellac.
Thanks Mary! While the bottoms had been painted in lacquer, the tops were actually shellac. Looked like liquid rock candy had been poured over the top. 😉 It was fun to get that off and see the pretty wood underneath. I enjoy the rustic look of it!
I can appreciate the look of a matte lacquer but plastic resin based products like lacquer and poly scare me. Because I have small kids and paint inside a lot of times I have to be really careful what I use.
Thanks for visiting!
Once sanded how did you treat the table tops?
What did you use to get the tops that color?
It’s just the natural wood stripped of paint.