Well we're coming up on a year since we started this project, and I'm finally getting my stuff together and sharing our dining table overhaul!
Here's a look at our old dining set. We bought it off of Craigslist when we moved to South Carolina after living in a furnished apartment in Virginia. The chairs and table legs were solid wood, but the table top was that awful particle board and laminate. From the day we got it I had envisioned several makeovers but we didn't have the working space while living in an apartment. So once we moved to Washington and in to an actual house, I was so excited to tackle this project. And after taking a few months to get used to the whole, having a newborn thing, we were finally ready to get to work!
I had no intention of making a tutorial out of this, but I can at least walk through the steps we took to make our new table top and refinish our chairs. First, of course, we cleaned everything, then got to sanding and prepping the chairs and table legs.
After sanding we covered them in spray primer. The spray primer was more expensive than a can, but we knew trying to paint primer around all of those rungs would take for-ev-er (and time became exponentially more valuable after having a baby), so we decided it was worth the cost to get it done faster with spray primer.
At first we had settled on blue and yellow paint for our chairs. I had gotten coupons for free Valspar paints so we figured we'd use it on the chairs and save a little money. However once we started we realized two things: first, we did not like either color (and they were a little too Navy pride for us), and second, it just wasn't brushing on nicely. So we abandoned the blue and yellow paint and opted for black spray paint and a different shade of yellow, also in spray paint.
We also used white spray paint for the table legs. I know it sounds like a ton of cans of spray paint but it wasn't too bad, and the white and black cans were dirt cheap anyway.
On to the table. First we assembled the table top (side note: we did make the new table quite bigger than the original) then took it outside to sand it super smooth. After a good cleaning we gave it a couple coats of stain and a final quick sanding. We attached lattice board to the border of the table with finishing nails and used wood putty to fill in the holes. Then we used some old packing paper and frog tape to cover the wood table top and spray paint the lattice white. We did the paint after attaching the lattice rather than before so that the putty would get covered without having to repaint over everything. Finally, we removed the paper and tape and brushed on a few coats of polyurethane (we also polyurethaned the chairs as well). All that was left was to screw on the old table legs! The top needed a bit more stabilizing so we actually used a couple Ikea Skorva mid beams on the underside to sturdy it up.
And there she is!
Joey and I have a saying we like when we try new projects: "its not perfect, but its ours". We are far from expert carpenters or decorators or designers, but there is something so satisfying about making something new and exactly what you wanted, with your own hands. Our table may not be perfect, but its ours, and it has served us well for the past several months. We look forward to our table growing with us as our family grows, squeezing in more chairs and enjoying happier and louder family meals.
[I spy a little Curran!]
And I have to give a little thanks to Joey for always getting on board when I have crazy ideas and helping me make things like this dining table for our family. This kinda stuff takes two and I'm glad he's on my team. I got a good one!
