Ikea Vilaby Table Renovation

 Vilaby is a coffee table with legs made of laminated bent wood and matches well with Poang chairs.

I picked one up in November or December 2022 on Freecycle. It was needing love as it been well used. 

I planned to start the restoration once the weather got warmer. There's been a couple of dry enough days to do the sanding of the legs the past few of weekends outside as I don't have anywhere inside that I wouldn't care about the dust from all that sanding.

As can be seen, a bit of a state - I think the previous owners said it'd been their garage for sometime and before that well used and I assume well loved.

This is the first leg that I sanded back to bare wood - it was the worse looking one of the two.

This week I had 2 good enough days to give the legs their first coat of varnish and the light sandpapering they need between coats and then their second coat of varnish. They will need at least another one coat of the varnish. Then I can start thinking about restoring the table top and the lower shelf. The table top has had a fair amount of wear and, I think, water damage as the edges of the strips of veneer look like they are separating from each other :-( I'll know better once it is sanded. The lower shelf won't be a problem as there is only surface discolouration.

20231001 Update

I did sand the table top a few months ago and it didn't go well :-( The veneer was so thin and the colour, due to sunlight ageing, was very uneven. I did one coat of varnish and not at all happy with it. I've put the project on hold until I decide if I'm going to re-veneer it or not. I can bet sufficient Birch veneer in iron-on format but it is more than £40 through Amazon :-O