DIY Junkyard Coffee Table Makeover + Faux Wood Grain without Tools

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JGdinAr7XI&t=6s

Hello, everyone. Today we will be talking all about restoring a junkyard coffee table into a warm and rustic dream piece. Let’s get started.

Three years ago, our apartment was a collection of mismatched second-hand furniture. Like this coffee table we got from a lovely restaurant owner.

It was a little rough around the edges, but I knew that with a little love, it could be restored into a gorgeous piece of furniture.

The trouble was, I had almost zero experience with woodworking at this point and didn’t quite know how to fix a table that was this far gone.

New beginnings, new tabletop

I decided to take off the top. And I somehow managed to do that with a chisel and a pestle, because I didn’t even own a hammer back then!

Since this was originally a dining table for a restaurant, I also had to shorten its legs. But sawing off such bulky wooden legs was beyond my capabilities.

Thankfully, I understood my limit and called for reinforcement.

After going back and forth on whether we should go for a glass top or a regular wooden finish, we settled for a 3x4 square foot plywood piece.

To add a bit of character, I sawed off about an inch around the corners diagonally.

Wood stains, paints & exposed screw heads

I decided to stain the top and paint the rest of the table with Asian paint in the walnut shade.

When it came to attaching the top to the table, I had the brilliant idea to go with exposed screws. I know. Cringe.

This amateur restoration only got worse with time as I resorted to using the coffee table as the stage for all my carpentry projects over the next three years.

So, of course, the plywood top ended up looking like this after years of torture.

Through much trial and error, I have managed to learn a few things about woodworking over the last couple of years. But I knew that if I were to restore this coffee table properly, I would have to resurrect the original planks for the top.

Which, by the way, had been sitting outside in nature for quite some time now.

Resurrecting the OG tabletop

I first removed all the nails. These were dangerously rusted and could easily get you a ticket to the ER. Then, I gave the planks a good cleaning with water and soap to get rid of all the gunk.

While they were drying, I removed the plywood top from the coffee table, which, by the way, I’ll now be able to recycle for my next project – a new custom-made bookshelf.

I sanded the edges of the table to make sure the top sat flush, then filled the uneven and gaping areas with wood filler.

Magic of countersink drill bit

To attach this now-resurrected tabletop, I first pre-drilled 2 pilot holes on each side of every plank.

Then, to fix what I had screwed up last time, I went in with a countersink drill bit to make a wider entrance to the pilot holes. Countersink holes ensure that the screw heads sit flush with the wood top instead of sticking out. After that, you can just camouflage these holes with some wood filler. It’s that easy!

Once the planks were fixed in place, I sanded everything down to get a smooth surface before I moved on to the next crucial part.

After struggling with the wood filler tub for a good while, I used it to fill all the prominent cracks and crevices that had made the planks unusable. This part required a lot of sanding, a lot of patience, and a stellar episode of Derry Girls to keep me in the zone.

Next, it was time to prime everything.

Creating a faux wood grain

After the primer had dried overnight, I moved on to apply a coat of Asian Paint’s Golden Brown enamel all over the table. Let me explain why I did that.

The table’s natural wood grain was just not popping with any kind of stain, so I tried to create a false one. Of course, I scoured the internet for some professional advice and learned that most carpenters have this very straightforward technique for it.

First, you go in with a few base coats of golden brown paint, then you either draw by hand or use one of those plastic tools to create a faux wood grain with darker paint.

And I did exactly that. The end result, however, was far from impressive.

I guess experience and practice pay off with this technique. And I didn’t have either of those. But I needed to fix this quickly, so I decided to just remove the paint and start from scratch.

I was panicking at this point, questioning my abilities, my stupidity, and my very reason for existence. So I kind of stopped recording and took a minute to figure out my next step.

Failed faux wood grains & a breakthrough

Off camera, I experimented with a few things and of them all, what worked the best was a sort of wood filler patchwork. Basically, I drew a grain-like texture across the surface using wood filler.

Then, I went in with a 2:1 mixture of wood stain and turpentine. And it didn’t look half bad.

After this, I just eye-balled layers of wood filler and diluted stain to create the most grain-like appearance possible.

Best top coat for high-traffic surfaces

Once everything was dry, I added my trusted melamine top coat, which not only gives it shine but also makes a high-traffic area like a coffee table very easy to clean. Also, it just looks very pretty. Even in fluorescent lighting.

Sometimes, when I’m drowning in a sewage of anxiety, I have these rare moments of accidental breakthroughs. Making faux wood grain with wood filler was definitely one of those.

What do you think? Was I able to do some justice to this junkyard coffee table? Was I able to restore it to some level of glory? Let me know in the comment section. And don’t forget to like and subscribe if you want to follow along with my living room makeover series. Take care and I’ll see you soon.