Side Table: Before and After - Wood Bleaching

Finished version of the bleached wood table that might have once been a nightstand. (The buddha and mirror are from one of my favorite thrift stores in Roseville, CA, Antique Trove. The pink ganesh is from Michele Varian.)

Another find from that local estate warehouse sale. I had been looking for a little table just like this ever since I watched Rita Konig’s masterclass. It’s a fantastic little course. In one of my favorite episodes, she goes to a Tennant’s Auction House in Yorkshire. She points out how useful little tables can be in a bathroom or other place in the house.

Small side table that Rita spots at Tennant Auction House that she recommends for a bathroom.

Small cabinet at the estate sale.

While I don’t have Tennant’s in my backyard, I did find a great estate sale warehouse (You can find local estate sales on estatesales.net) I was pretty thrilled when I stumbled upon this little cabinet. The marble top was beautiful. It was the perfect small size. And with a house over-run by toddler toys, I’m always in the market for closed storage.

The table looked to be from the late 1800s, and I was excited to give it a new life in my home. But I was a little less excited about the wood color. What I was looking for was something like the bleached wood tones in the pieces at one of my favorite local shops — Summer House. The pieces are deservedly more in the range of thousands of dollars, not like my humble little table. (Look at that amazing carved column capital)

Inspiration wood tones at Summer House in Mill Valley.

Back to reality. My estate sale cabinet was $75, which made it the perfect experimenting piece. I was impatient to get started and I had some wood stripper from another project so I took everything outside and begin attempting to remove the finish. I didn’t take the time to make sure I had good gloves. I just threw on some gardening gloves and ended up with some chemical burns on my hands so the glove recommendations are definitely there for good reason.

The finish came off quite easily and then I sanded the piece and then wiped it down with household bleach. Once the table was light enough, I simply applied some colorless Renaissance wax.

After stripping and a first layer of bleaching.

You may be able to tell that the wax slightly darkened the wood compared the raw, bleached look above, but it wasn’t dark enough for me to mind. In addition to loving the color of the wood, I do appreciate that I can always take the table darker with a stain — it feels like it has more longevity.

And the final before and after! I like the look of this transformation much more than my liming wax experiment! I’m on the hunt for a large credenza to make over so I’m glad I’m getting some practice on these smaller pieces! Right now the table is in the main living space, but it’s certainly small enough to be used in numerous places like as a nightstand or even in a bathroom (as Rita suggested!)