Happily Ever Chic: The Dining Table

After moving up North, my husband and I sold ALL our furniture...yes I said ALL. We needed to fill our home from top to bottom...The lawn chairs in our living room weren't cutting it anymore

...ENTER CraigsList.

This is my favorite online one-stop-shop. You can find everything on CraigsList...I mean everything!

Since we needed so much I wanted to make sure each piece had a story...I didn't want to "fill" our home with just anything.

After searching and searching, I came across a table on CraigsList, with 4 chairs and all, a deal I couldn't pass up.

I know she isn't much to look at now but keep reading...

I knew this table would be a ton of work but the bones were good and the table and chairs were solid. The table had been painted (not very well) hence all the chips and scratches. I began by stripping the old paint...this took some time folks. Thank goodness I had a second set of hands, compliments of my husband.

Warning...this is messy and VERY time consuming but well worth it. Make sure you work in a well ventilated area as the fumes are toxic.

After stripping the paint I sanded with a 220 fine grit sand paper to smooth out any rough edges. The sanding helps to make a smooth clean surface for your paint and primer to adhere to.

It was impossible to get every ounce of paint removed but the surface was clean and ready for paint. I chose to spray prime using Kilz primer.

After I finished priming (sorry no picture) I spray painted the table using Krylon in Ivory. This spray paint is a gloss protective enamel which provides a more durable surface. Since this was a dining table, I knew it would get tons of use and wipe downs. Here is the table after several LIGHT coats of paint.

I decided that I wanted to distress the table and give it some character. I sanded the corners and areas of the table that would get normal wear and tear. Some areas were sanded down to the original wood while other areas were sanded down to previous paint. You can't mess this part up... after all the goal is to make the table look distressed and worn. After "beating up" my table I took Minwax stain in Dark Walnut and stained all the sanded edges. Staining the raw edges actually protects and seals theses areas.

Here's how you stain: Simply take a old cloth, in my case an old t-shirt, and wipe down the sanded area until you get the color you want...the more you add the darker the stain.

Make sure to apply the stain in light coats as it tends to get tacky if too much is applied. After staining I took my fine grit paper and lightly sanded over areas where the stain seemed too dark. See folks you cannot mess this up. Think of your sandpaper as a giant eraser. :) Here is the finished product. I decided to sand on the surface as well...at first by accident but then decided I loved the extra character it added.