My eldest daughter is almost able to dress herself, and to incentivise her to put the clothes away as neatly as she puts them on, I gave this mid-century dressing table a facelift.

We bought the Uniflex dressing table, along with a couple of bedside tables at Sunbury Antiques Market.  The dressing table had been in the sun, and the varnish had turned a fairly unattractive yellow.  A through sanding revealed the  fantastic colour and grain of the walnut veneer.  It took an afternoon of elbow grease in the garden to sand the dressing table down.   Then all that was needed was a few of coats in a matt varnish in the kitchen (out of the rain)  once the kids were in bed.  I used the Auro matt varnish, which is water-thinned, free of solvents and wood preservatives and made of environmentally friendly raw materials such as linseed and rapeseed oils.  I shall spare you a full list of ingredients, but safe to say my daughter’s bedroom is not the place for VOCs (volatile organic compounds).

My tool for the job was a professional quality Ecoezee 2 inch paint brush.  The brushes handles are made from bamboo, which is lighter than oak, highly durable and a fast growing, sustainable natural resource.  The brush filaments are a mix of recycled natural and synthetic bristle designed to work well with all paint types (I can vouch for varnish and chalk paint so far).  The ferrule (the band attaching the filament to the brush) is made from recycled stainless steel.  The packaging is recycled cardboard and a donation is made to rainforest conservation for every brush sold.  The brushes are widely available from Travis Perkins as well as other retailers, such as the Eco Home Centre.

We are all impressed with the results.  The dressing table is now full of my 3 and 3/4 year old’s essentials, including cress seeds germinating in eggs shells in the cupboard before the rest of her t-shirts are moved in!