We’ve had this table since we got married. It was a gift from an old roommate and a blessing because we didn’t have a budget for a lot of furniture in the beginning. I love how small it can be but also with two leaves, it’ll fit at least 10 people. Perfect at the holidays. The original chairs we quickly replaced and then talked about how we could change the table to better fit our style. Well, we talked about it for 5 years. We couldn’t decide what we wanted to do….stain or paint? This was the original look – natural pine. It wasn’t bad actually and contrasted with the dark stained chairs.
The Friday night of Labor Day weekend, after dinner, I suggested we redo the table. James had a three day weekend and we didn’t have any plans, it was a great idea. After a little Pinterest-ing (you know, Googling on Pinterest), we were off to Home Depot for supplies and Harbor Freight for a hand sander (James was very excited for a new power tool). My goal was to stay under $60 to stain the table to match the dark wood of the chairs.
All day Saturday was spent doing a light sanding on everything because it had a thin, clear finish. On Sunday, I started staining the legs just to see how the stain would take and look. We went with an American Walnut because we couldn’t find a stain that would match the chairs exactly. We thought that would look funny so we decided to go with something darker that wasn’t as dark but would still contrast.
I am not sure if we did something wrong, like not sand enough or not have enough patience, but the American Walnut wasn’t working for us. It looked orange on the pine and not much darker than what it was before. Maybe after 3 or 4 coats it would have worked? I don’t know. Not an expert. So after some discussion, it was back to Home Depot for a darker stain.
Ebony to be exact. I did a small section to see what it would look and nope, not a good look. Again, maybe we weren’t patient enough or knowledgeable enough to work with stain and should have kept going but we were tired of wasting time and money. With two days gone and our $60 budget blown it was time to make a decision.
It was back to Home Depot for primer and paint. White paint. Yes, we probably should have done this to begin with because now that it’s finished I love the look.
On went a coat of primer, two coats of paint and 3 coats of poly. It took a full week with drying times and our schedules.
There was more sanding involved (I hate sanding) after primer coats and in between poly coats. It probably could have been sanded more but we wanted out kitchen table back. This is William and I laying on the kitchen rug, having a snack.
We used foam brushes for the legs and apron and a sponge roller for the table top both for painting and priming.
You can see it’s not as smooth as it should be. It’s most definitely far from perfect but I still love how it came out.
I used a satin paint but a semi-gloss poly for a little shine. I didn’t want it to be too matte and feel rustic.
We thought about adding a red stripe around the edge of the table to match the orange table but I decided against it at the last minute. This is not the American Red Cross headquarters.
The finished table! We’ve been using it a few weeks now and it’s been a nice change. I love how it brightens the kitchen and looks against my rug.
If you want more information on steps and supplies, I can tell you what we used and my steps or you can check out this gals blog. I used the same primer and tools she did. For the paint I went with Behr. I wanted to keep track of how much we spent too but after the 3rd trip to Home Depot, I gave up. Pretty sure it was more like $100 and not $60. Since the table didn’t cost us anything, I think it all balanced out in the end and 5 years later we have a new to us table.
Even though James and I worked well together on this project, I don’t think we are DIY-ers at heart. We won’t be going YHL on you here anytime soon and that is ok with me. I’d like to re-tile two of our bathrooms here soon. You better believe I’ll be hiring a pro.
Elizabeth Hafner 