Dressing A Table In Hot Pink Socks

I found this table in our cellar (natch). It was in a sorry state - filthy, rusty, dusty and wobbly. But I liked the combination of the metal legs and the wooden plank top, and thought it could scrub up quite nicely.

Here's how it looked after I attacked the wooden top with our fabulous new Makita belt sander, and Andre had smoothed over the holes around the edge with some wood filler.

I sanded the legs, primed them, and painted them white. Then the table got a hot pink collar, and hot pink socks.

We're in the middle of the verrrrrry slow process that is choosing the right kind of stain/oil for our wooden floors (I want to use the same colour/finish throughout the house, so we've got to get it right first time). After a ton of research, I've narrowed the choices down to the tinted version of Osmo Polyx hardwax oil, or alternatively Fiddes hardwax oil.

I took a sanded plank from our floor to a very nice dude at Acorn Timber Supplies in Eccles who very kindly applied a whole bunch of Osmo floor treatments to it (for free!), and I also ordered a couple of (not free!) Fiddes sample pots online. Not keen on Fiddes as it turns out - I really like their furniture wax, but their hardwax oil somehow feels too watery for our poor floors that have not been treated in 130 years and are therefore extremely thirsty. But Osmo is gorgeous - you can see why it's an industry benchmark product.

So I ordered a couple of Osmo samples so we could try them on a wider surface area. The finish we applied to the table top is Osmo Tinted Polyx hardwax oil in Terra (code 3073).

It gives a very dark, rich finish - I've subsequently refined my application technique via further experimentation on other bits of furniture, and I've found that if you apply the oil extremely sparingly and really buff it on with the brush, it gives a lighter finish that beautifully shows off the grain of the wood. Possibly it's still too dark for our floors, but I think it looks great on the table.

I'm thinking I may paint either the collar or the socks gold (to match the fireplace) at some stage - but for now the table's doing great service in Eva's temporary bedroom, piled high with Spot the Dog and Hairy McLairy books.

Meanwhile, work continues apace on Eva's actual bedroom - we've plastered a wall (naturally I'm using the 'royal we' here, I hate working with plaster, yucky dusty stuff), taken up the carpet, sanded most of the floor, drilled through a water pipe sending a slightly unnerving cascade of water into the playroom below, replaced the offending pipe, and made a shocking discovery that had us cursing the previous owners yet again. Photos of said shocking discovery coming up - brace yourselves, people. It's hard viewing.