Oleksia Design: Renovating an old maid's table

This beautiful old maid's table has been waiting to be noticed in our attic. The table is an excellent example of art nouveau (jugend) design, of which Finnish people are very keen on to. Art nouveau was dominating art in Europe from 1890 till early 1900 century. Art nouveau opened the field to artists and deleted the boundaries between the branch of sciences and between different fields of art. Art nouveau style can be found especially in architecture, design, interior design and also in poster art in the era mentioned. It's not a long shot claim to say that Art nouveau was a reaction to the forms of classism in which different existing styles were repeated. Art nouveau can be seen in the light of unique decorative details but also as a simple rationalism. On the other hand rationalism can be seen to lead the road to functionalism.

Functionalism raised after art nouveau in 1930's. But some sprouts of functionalism can be detected much earlier. Louis Sullivan, an American architect, coined the famous phrase "Form follows the function." already in 1896. Altough the phase doesn't quite meet the contemporary understanding or term function. Anyhow functionalism began to be more discussed in the mid-1930's in the field of design. Functionalism is regarded to featured with practical design and lack of ornamentation. Some may even regard functionalism little bit brutal form of design.

The maid's table belongs to our house, which was built in 1924 in Karelia, Terijoki, but the history of the house is not quite clear. The house, more likely the logs, were shipped to Siuro in 1938 and the house was rebuilt on top of the rock. The table is estimated to be from that era, but the story doesn't tell how the table found it's way to our attic. The maid's table really is an excellent example of art nouveau design in Finland.

The maid's table had been painted with creamy white oil paint. The shade was regarded a bit too yellowish and way too shiny. So it was decided to paint the table with water soluble, dim white furniture paint. The shade (in this case non shaded white) was elected to go along with the white Vitra-Eames DSR chairs and old antique table and also with the white panel, presented in the picture below.

First the furniture was washed with mild soap water and then rinsed with clear water after. After drying the furniture was first sanded with harsh sand paper (M80) and wiped with moist cloth after. In some parts of the furniture the paint was impossible to remove with sand paper and those spots needed a bit rougher treatment. The paint remover was used to these difficult parts. After removing the paint it was noticed that underneath the creamy paint there was another layer of colored lack or wax. After first round the table was sanded again with little bit milder sandpaper (M150) and wiped with moist clothe again. The final sanding was made with fine sandpaper (M240) and wiped with dry cloth to get rid of the sanding dust.

The table was painted four times with Ilves-furniture paint. The paint was a delightful new acquaintance. It was really easy to spread with paint brush and paint roller. The brass pendant pulls were elected to go with the art nouveau style. They fit very nicely with the whole. All in all this renovating process was fun and very rewarding. The table happily found it´s place with the dining table.

The maid's table in the attic.

The colour of the table was whitish with cream tone.
It was regarded to be little bit too yellow.
The table has two cute draws which were calling
for new pulls.