A few weeks ago I received a call from a client looking for a sideboard to put in their holiday house down the coast. The brief was pretty simple. Something beachie and light to match a new coat of paint and some freshly discovered floor boards in their lounge room. It’s to house a flat screen TV, DVD player, DVD’s and a few books along with a few small ornaments.

With nothing quite suitable on the site I checked out our storage shed for a piece I had in mind.

Its a 1950’s sideboard, comprising of a laminex top, 4 drawers and cupboard space (again covered in laminex) along with a display area to the centre of the piece with a glass shelf/2 glass sliding doors.

Now lets face it, the piece is pretty ugly……that pink/salmon laminex along with that darkish stained timber…ugh. The sideboard though had great dimensions along with those awesome splayed legs that flow so smoothly into the bottom support. The ‘bones’ were good, and in this situation that’s all that matters.

First up the laminex top, drawers, and door were removed along with the drawer runners and cupboard space shelf. This left a few gaping holes to fill. We decided the best way to achieve the ‘beachie & light’ style we were after was to go with a pine plywood. It does bring an ‘industrial’ style feel along so we decided to go with exposed/countersunk screw heads also.

Once the majority of the frame work was completed the original timber veneer sides/solid timber base were sanded to remove the 60+ year old shellac and the accompanying dark timber stain underneath. The masonite backs were lightly scuffed and primed in white undercoat.

The plan is to varnish all the exposed timber (cuts down on ongoing maintenance – holiday home) whilst painting the masonite backs in a vivid white paint to not only add to the ‘light’ feel of the piece, but to contrast nicely against the the wide flowing pine plywood grain and the tight maple veneer grain.

Definitely looking forward to seeing the finished product. Stay tuned.