Rustic Chest Turned Coffee Table

Suges and I picked up a pine Spanish Chest right after we got married. It came unfinished. I randomly bought some unknown laquer/varish/poly and slapped a coat on it by the moonlight on our old balcony.

Well, 10 years later, it needed a touch up.

Here's the before:

I sanded it down, oiled and waxed it into this:

The Back Gate

An appropriate first project: Refinishing a gate. I figure we're entering into something, might as well get the entryway looking nice.


View from the alley



Close up




View from inside the yard


I used a scraper and mouse sander to get most of the old paint off. It looked as if the gate had not been painted for several years (if not decades).

I didn't use any chemicals to remove the old paint, not for any greater philosophical reasons, but just because I didn't think of it. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't. I like how a lot of the old paint is still hanging around.

There was some rot in the wood. I just took it on faith that it would all hold once I got the finish on it. I put two coats of Behr Premium Wood Finish. Pretty happy with it.

These pictures are from today, June 1st, 2008. The gate was refinished on March 29th, 2008.