Vintage Imperial Bedside Table

End Table – Vintage Imperial Round

This is my mom’s vintage Imperial round bedside table growing up. Well, it wasn’t vintage when she was growing up, it was just a table. But it’s vintage now because that’s what the cool kids say.  Because it has some sentimental value, I wanted to be careful to keep it as much original as possible. Unfortunately, the bottom stand and legs were in pretty bad shape – so a slight redesign was settled upon and it turned out great!

To get started, two legs were broken off the base, and were split in half. The wood was also very dry, resulting in splits and gaps in the other two legs and along the base/stand of the table. The table top had quite a few stains and marks, but was otherwise in great shape. I used some carefully placed glue and clamps to get the lets put back together, as well as patch up some of the splits in the wood along the base. I sanded, sanded and sanded the top of the table to get all the years of grim gone and was left with a nice smooth top. NOTE: never sand veneer too much as you don’t want to get to the layer underneath.

Once everything was sanded and cleaned, I painted the table base a classic white while staining the tabletop a medium color stain. I polished the original brass feet and drawer handles with some homemade concoctions to bring back their original shine. I lightly distressed the table base, then applied a few coats of a sealing layer to bring everything together.

The white base and stain top kept some of the original beauty the wood was able to show, while updating the entire piece to match it’s new forever home.