Making it Work.... Table Refinishing 2011

One of my besties has a great quote that I'm sure I'll get wrong but it's basically this, "Make do with What you have, When you have it." I love it! It was 100% my mantra when it came to this table. We moved in and Doug hated it so much it didn't even get set up, it was delegated straight to the dungeon (aka the unfinished basement) and we ate at the bar or standing up. We thought we wanted to go buy a new table but once we were looking we, I realized that I actually really liked our exisiting table, I just wished it looked different. I decided to re-finish it and it became one of those projects Husbandface hated and was completely opposed to. I figured if I couldn't make it look good, we'd only be out the $20 in paint/stain it took to do it. 

Before; 

We were moved in only 2-3 days before I dove into this project because I was dying to feel 'moved in' and a lack-of table kinda made the entire kitchen feel temporary. I did get it done just in time for July 4th so I was proud it was one of those projects that got done and didn't sit unfinished for months. One great thing about the earlier mentioned dungeon? I have a blank, empty room to do my project uninturrupted in! Doug hated me getting paint on the concrete but, better down there then in his dream garage, right? I started by doing a quick sanding of the top. The legs/aapron I didn't because I was painting over them and didn't care about the exisiting finish. After that I wiped everything down really well with hot water and let it dry overnight. The next day I took a fork, hammer, and metal plate and pretty much beat up the top of the wood table by banging them to add to that worn out look. Then I put a little wood conditioner on the top and let that dry overnight. (brings out the wood grain) 

During;

Now the fun part. I wanted the heritage look but didn't want it scruffed up too much. So, I stained the top a really dark walnut first, making sure that the 'beat-up' parts were absorbed into then I wiped that off (with a dry cloth) before it completely dried evenly/dark across the top. The next day I put on a lighter walnut coat evenly over the top and let that set. Then before I decided it was done I did another coat of the dark walnut to give it that layered, antiqued look. During each of those days waiting and waiting for it to dry in between coats, I spray painted the legs, aapron and two chairs 4 light layers.  Then I pulled out my new favorite furniture refinishing ingredient.... PolyCrylic. This time I decided to skip the spray paint aspect and I rubbed each coat on with a soft cloth, let it dry, then wiped it down between each coat with a new softer cloth, then did another coat. 2 coats for the legs/aapron and 7 coats for the table top (because it was going to be getting a lot of wear and tear). It also helped the top to be even, the polycrylic 'filled in' the gouges from when I beat it up so in the end it still ended up a smooth/level surface on the top. Apparently you can get a tinted polycrylic so I could have combined my staining/polycrylic steps but I didn't learn that until after. Oh well, live and learn, right? Either way, I love the finished product. (and bonus? So does Husbandface... I love proving that man wrong.) It saved me from buying a new table/chairs set. I did buy two benches online but all the sets we could find only had benches sold seperately so we would have had to do that anyway.  Now there is plenty of room for our family of 5 (soon to be 6!) and we can save the money  we would have used on this to put towards other furniture, like a new dining room table! (I'm working on that project now actually.)

After; 

Thanks for checking in....

JJ

 

 

Comments

[lora.gooch@cox.net]

I LOVE it. I think my hubby might be getting a new project soon now. ha. Great job!