Kitchen Table MAKEOVER!

WOW! I've been 100% absent from this blog for over 6 months...all I can say for myself is that life happens! Between our busy summer, hubby being overly busy with work and training, and having a super active 4 year old (oh and my full time job), I just got busy and maybe a little lazy. In any case, I'm ready to get back to writing and sharing our projects and creations with you!

So let's jump in to this kitchen table overhaul that is about 365 days in the making. Our kitchen table was a hand me down from my parents when they replaced it after having it for a few years (and after a few moves). We've had it for about 5 years now and we've moved it across the country and then down the street and around the corner. So needless to say, it's had its share of dents and scratches. However, this is a great table and we LOVE it! It can be small to fit 4-6 people, or it can open up and when the built in leaf pops out, it can seat 8 comfortably. It's still as sturdy as the day my parents got it, so we really didn't want to get rid of it, but I couldn't stand the scratches and stains any longer (note to readers: Don't use red woven placemats on a light colored table and spill water on them. They will bleed and stain your table. Learn from my mistakes, trust me!). This meant it was project time!!

As you can see the table was originally two-toned with a light, natural wood look on the top surfaces of the table and chairs, and the bottom had a dark walnut type color. While I like the look of the two-toned wood, because no matter where we've lived with this table it has gone well with light or dark kitchen cabinets, I did not exactly trust my skills when it would be time to re stain with 2 different colors.So I settled on making it one color, and I knew I wanted to go dark to hide any future imperfections, because, lets face it, I have kids. Kids spill. Oh and I live here too and I spill just as much as they do (the red place mats have not been used since the staining incident-which was 100% my doing-and are currently sitting in my "garage sale" pile, just to be on the safe side!).

We were away from home visiting family last year during Valentine's Day, and once we got home, hubby surprised me with some roses and a hand sander so I could get started on this project! To those who are not married or are newlyweds, get ready, your time is coming. Yup, that's right, the time where jewelry and chocolates don't excite you anymore, but an electric hand sander...be still my heart. :) Practical gifts = amazeballs!

As it always does, life got busy and I don't think I actually started the sanding until about April of last year. That first weekend, I got half of one chair sanded. That was it. I determined that this project was MUCH more difficult and labor intensive than I had initially planned. I was feeling very overwhelmed.





Fast forward to the end of May when I realized that we had company coming in July and unless I got this thing done before then, we'd all be eating on a blanket on the floor. While that may be fun once or twice, something tells me the novelty of nightly picnics would wear off quickly. So I got back to my project full blast. 




The chairs took forever to sand because of the backs with all of the spindles and my inability to get in between them with the sander. I tried using our Dremel tool to get in there, but no matter which sanding head I used, it was just too powerful and was leaving weird dents in the wood and looked awful. So I ended up having to use a sanding block by hand to get in there. Hand sanding = lonnnnnng nights sanding & tired arms!

Once I got everything sanded down, I was SO excited! It was FINALLY time to go pick out the stain and get this project wrapped up! Or so I thought...

I had less than 2 weeks before my company arrived, so I knew I'd be working overtime to get this thing all stained and coated with several coats of poly. To my excitement, I arrived at Lowe's to find a can of dark walnut stain & poly in one! FABULOUS! This would cut my work time in half! Someone please take my money! 

That was a bad idea.

I got the stain home, started applying it to one of the chairs and the color was NOT even close to the color shown on the can, it was much lighter and very streaky. It looked awful however I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and I did 2 chairs and the table, hoping it would darken as it dried overnight. Nope. Not even a little. To say the least, I was devastated. All of this work I had put in and I HATED it. This was when I poured a glass of wine, and started online shopping for a new table.

Before giving up all hope and clicking the "Add to cart" button, I headed back to Lowe's to give it one last shot. I got the regular stain and separate can of matte finish poly. The table previously had a glossy finish and I loved the look of the matte so I thought I'd try it out. If this new stain didn't work, hubby and I decided we'd be table shopping the next day.

The very first swipe of the stain made my heart happy! It was GORGEOUS! Exactly what I had envisioned. (See the side by side of the two stains? It was like night and day!) 

So over the next few days early in the morning, during my lunch breaks, and after the kiddo went to bed, I got the remaining 4 chairs and table stained. Next was the poly, I was a little apprehensive since I did choose the matte finish and after the stain + poly in one incident, I didn't have time (or patience) for another part of this project to go wrong. But thankfully, it went on smoothly and I loved it!! 

I got a couple coats on and dried, and we got the table back in the house the night before our guests arrived. The can instructs to let the poly dry for several days before full use of the furniture, so I had to place a note on top to ensure no one ruined or even touched my beautiful table for another 24 hours.


TA DA!!! The glorious, gorgeous "new" table!!




















Back to those 2 chairs gone wrong. Ugh. They sat in my garage for several more months before I finally got around to sanding them back down and re-staining them. I was also noticing on the table and chairs in the house that the matte finish, while it looks very nice, shows lots of little scratches. So when I got the last 2 chairs stained and coated with poly, I went ahead and added another 2 coats of poly to the table and tops of the chairs that were already done. Luckily, poly doesn't have an odor, so I could do this inside and let it dry overnight (while kiddo slept and wasn't near it to mess it up). 

I figure about once a year I'm going to want to gently sand and add a new coat of the poly to keep it looking fresh and new. This I can handle.

I'm just over the moon in love with my new table! 

I love all of the wood grain, it gives it so much dimension!

Lessons learned from this project:

1) I will never refinish furniture of this size/difficulty again. Too. Much. Work.
2) Do NOT try to shortcut two steps in one, just like in life, there is no such thing.
3) Every project is going to take twice as long as I think it will. In this case, my "weekend" table refinish project took 52 weekends to actually complete.
4) Hard work does pay off in the end. I LOVE my table now and all it cost was about $50 in materials and maybe a little of my sanity. :)

Stay tuned for more DIY projects around my home including a laundry room, and master bathroom makeovers!

-A