Table Top Made With Old Printing Press Type

I have a thing for old type: wood, metal – whatever. If it’s a letter, I fall all over it…

I found this hand-made welder’s stool at the swap meet for $5, and although the top had a great patina, I thought a new one was in order. I’ve seen old type used on the seat of old chairs before and thought I’d give it a try here.  

I gave the stool a good cleaning and took the old top off to use as a pattern for a new piece of wood. I cut the wood and spray painted the new top a flat black. Just a quick bit of advice, like laying tile, whenever you glue type it’s a really good idea to have a clean and level surface

Next, I selected a bunch of letters from my stash of wooden type which I get from my pal, Al. Many of the larger and more colorful letters were used for printing carnival posters & billboards and I save them for special projects because they are hard to find.

I took my time laying out the type – it is as important to fill the space up as it is to balance the colors and textures. This took some time to do, but is a fun challenge -and the results are really satisfying.

Once I was happy with the layout, I cleaned and polished each letter with Briwax. Briwax does a great job of cleaning the wood and bringing out the colors and grain.  Another aside- if you haven’t used Briwax on wood yet, do yourself a favor and get some. Next to the WD40 pen and JB Weld, it’s my favorite product to work with.

I glued the type back into place per my design and attached the new top to the stool using the original screws. I opted not to add glass on top of the type because the Briwax adds such a nice finish.

And now it has a new home as cute little side table next to Mom’s chair in Melissa’s sewing room.