Vote for Dokes Design's "Design With Purpose" Upcycled Project Here!

(voting ends on September 29, 2025)

I don't usually upcycle furniture, but Humble Design invited Danielle Nowak (my wife), the Lead Interior Designer at Dokes Design Architecture, to participate in an upcycling competition during Detroit Month of Design, and what type of husband would I be if I didn't offer to help? 

Together, we toured the Humble Design warehouse, considered many great options, and eventually chose a painted black table that we thought had tons of potential.

You can see the excitement.

After taking the table home, I started sanding the paint. The legs were first. We were pretty sure they were cherry based on the pink hue. 

Next came the top... We were intruiged, to say the least. The wood underneath was unimpressive, so we weren't expecting much. Then bam! Bird's eye maple! At this point, we figured it would be a sin to paint it.

(wtf was the person who painted it the first time, thinking???)

I sanded until the sun went down, removed all of the black paint except for the black lines that helped accent some of the detailing, and took this picture beneath the light of our outdoor sconces. We decided not to aim for perfection at this point because we enjoyed some of the distressed feeling that came from the sanding.

FLASHBACK!

Before we came to our sense, we had some pretty bold ideas:

❏ Flowers, moss, and butterflies in a resin tabletop

❏ Painted bright colors like orange, yellow, and green

❏ Gold pin-striping on the legs

❏ Faux floral painted sides and mural-painted on underside

Check out this video to see some brainstorming sessions with our son!

Now to see if we were right about our decision to dial the boldness back? 

Four coats of danish oil were added to the legs and side of the table. Wow did that color change. The danish oil was used to bring out the natural color of the table. We considered shellac, polyurethane, and even a tinted paste wax, but dansh oil won out in the end.

The danish oil gave our table such a rich and vibrant feel!

The nest step was going to be to add resin to our tabletop, but before we started pouring, we wanted to refine one major detail. After the sanding, there was a black line partially left between the cherry and the maple. We decided to clean that line up with some black paint. That black paint line also served as the outermost edge of our resin pour.

Once the painted black line was dry, we started pouring the resin. We used a crystal clear tabletop resin that turned out great. We weren't sure if the top and the sides would match, since two different materials were use as their finishes, but it was a perfect match.

A handheld propane torch was used to remove any bubbles from the resin. After it dried, we were done. Check out the results below, and if you like what you see, then please vote for Dokes Design here.

Vote for Dokes Design's "Design With Purpose" Upcycled Project Here!