Before & After: A Rustic, Reclaimed Tabletop Replacement

Jennifer Hunter
Jennifer Hunter
Jennifer spends her days writing and thinking about decor, food and fashion in NYC. Not too shabby.
published Sep 19, 2013
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Small dining area with a round white table, four wooden chairs, and a chalkboard wall with notes and drawings.
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Matt and Christian’s IKEA table was still really good at doing table jobs like supporting their food, but not so good at looking pretty while doing it — the pressboard top was beginning to disintegrate. So they came up with an easy and inexpensive way to give it a new life.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

They headed over to their local scrapyard and picked up some reclaimed 3/4” planks. For variety, they looked specifically for pieces with interesting paint or stain colors. Then they sanded the boards, cut them to size, epoxied all the nails and holes and finally applied a clear polyurethane coating for protection.

From Matt:

All of the lumber cost us $20 from Building Resources and other supplies (sandpaper, epoxy, glue, finish) were about $30. Much cheaper than buying a whole new table!

No word on whether or not Fat Cat ate, but Matt and Christian are sure eating in style these days. Great job!

See their Flicr photo diary for more.

Thank you Matt and Christian!

(Images: Matt Rupert)