Disclaimer: The products in the post were a PR gift from Autentico.

Have you ever wondered how you can strip furniture back to the bare wood with minimal effort? Well read on!

I’ve had my coffee table for around 8 years now. I bought it from a seller on eBay, loved the style but didn’t really take much notice of the measurements. When it arrived, it was much bigger than I expected but it’s actually a great size, it has become a feature in my living room and really centres the room. Read my previous blog post on why every home needs an oversized coffee table here.  We’ve used it for much more than coffee over the years. We play board games, use it for  Saturday night picnic suppers, the kids use it for homework and craft projects, plus it’s a great size to play around with styling my books, magazine’s, plants and candles etc…

The table came with a very dark waxed finish and recently I’ve been thinking about stripping it back to the bare wood because I prefer the natural colour, texture and rustic feel, but didn’t really know where to start. So it was a bit of a light bulb moment when I met up with Layla who is the global sales and creative marketing manager for Autentico, she mentioned a product that they have called Bio-Strip which is used for stripping most paint, wax and varnish from various surfaces. I told her about my coffee table and she said it would be perfect, she popped me a tin in the post to try.

Above are photo’s of how the table looked to start with. As you can see it has a dark wax finish. Here are the steps that I took to remove the wax with the Bio-Strip.

I couldn’t believe how well the Bio-strip worked and how easy it was to use. It did take a little bit of elbow grease to scrape it all off but the wax came away with just one coat. One of the things that I love about this product is that it is solvent free so does’t have any strong chemical smells, it actually smells really nice, like almonds!

So I guess the next step would be to apply a clear wax and finito, put my feet up! Nope, that would be far too simple! I didn’t actually like the colour of the wood, it was just a bit too in-between if you know what I mean. I wanted a more rustic feel. So I sent a photo to Layla and explained the look that I wanted to achieve and she recommended white washing it with chalk paint then wiping it off and finally waxing it. I loved the sound of that so I ordered the Autentico Vintage paint in Vanille and the clear furniture wax.

Caution: this can become very addictive and is by far the easiest paint method that I’ve ever tried! I absolutely love the finished effect, it’s exactly what I was looking to achieve.

For 3 different ways to style a coffee table, click here.

So what do you think? Have you got any furniture that you’re thinking of stripping? Maybe you’ve seen a piece of second hand furniture but left it behind because of the finish? Or maybe you’re looking to create a more rustic look. Autentico have kindly given me a 10% discount code. Just enter KERRY at checkout. It can be used in the following countries: