Faking a Metal Inlay in Wood on a Wooden Lazy Susan

Every now and again, I prefer doing a “refinish” than a “repurpose” on something that needs some TLUC (Tender Loving Upcycling Care). And so was the case with this wooden lazy Susan . It was badly stained with water rings and begging for a makeover. Suddenly, I had a vision of restoring the finish and faking a metal inlay in wood by using a stencil.

The underside was still in decent shape. And the rusty flat-head screws that connected the spinning hardware to the base told me it was, in fact, an older (i.e., better) piece.

I just needed to focus on the top with my upcycling plan of attack.

Once I’d assembled everything I needed, I set forth to put my upcycling plan in motion!

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Restoring a Wooden Lazy Susan

The first step was to remove the original (and damaged) finish.

I hated the idea of chemical stripping and much preferred to sand it all off. I attached an 80-grit disk to my orbital sander and got to work.

As you can see, sanding made a HUGE difference on the wooden lazy Susan! Pale and relatively clean wood greeted me underneath the damaged finish.

In the end, I sanded down the entire top surface, side lip, and underside. I stopped short of actually sanding the rotating base because I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone ever seeing it!

It was also difficult to grasp which made it a safety concern for me.

Once the old finish was completely removed, I quickly went over the wooden Susan again with a 120-grit sanding disk to make it smoother before using wood stain.

Now to stain the wooden lazy Susan! I decided that “Honey” by Minwax was a close match to the original finish. Plus, I still had plenty leftover after refinishing this mini set of drawers– remember that project?

I only bring that project up because it’s another refinishing project for those of you that need a break from “paint all the things”. 

Metal Inlay in Wood on a Modern Lazy Susan

As I had hoped, the wood stain gave the wooden lazy Susan a rich, deep color. And now that the water rings were (mostly) gone, the wood grain variations could shine through.

NOW I could work on faking a metal inlay in wood! And I’d use this stencil to get the mid century modern look I was going for.

You’re probably looking at that stencil and thinking “what the heck, Sadie?”, aren’t you? 

My plan involved using ONLY the outermost rings of the stencil. My hope was that by using metallic gold paint, I could get the look of metal inlay in wood!

Using gold craft paint, I only stenciled over the rings to transform the wooden lazy Susan into mid century modern decor. I don’t have the skills (or patience) for a real metal inlay, so a stenciled version was just the ticket.

And just like that, my idea worked! I never know how my ideas will pan out but I was SO pleased with the result.

Between the rich wood stain and the metal inlay, it had a real mid century modern feel to it.

When all was said and done, I buffed on some clear furniture wax to seal and topcoat all of my hard work!

Faking a Metal Inlay in Wood with a Wooden Lazy Susan

Of course, I don’t have too much mid century modern decor in my home, but vintage home decor can be eclectic with multiple styles working together (in my opinion).

Plus, MCM furniture plays a key role in Boho decor, which y’all know I’m dipping my toes into right now…

Yeesh…ignore the fact that my styling turned the wooden lazy Susan into the Pringles Man. I didn’t realize that at the time, haha!

*****

I hope you enjoyed this refinishing project as a nice change of pace from painting. I enjoy trying out different methods to revive thrift store finds and I REALLY love how this piece “turned” out.

Get it? “Turned out”? Because it’s a lazy Susan and it turns!

And if you enjoyed this upcycling idea for retro decor, then you may also be interested in my basket wall decor with woven trivets!

Craft on!

S

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