BEFORE
AFTER
It’s dooooooone!!!!!
I seriously can’t believe it. I’ve been staring at this table for two years, TWO YEARS . . . envisioning everyday what I wanted to do with it. How I wanted to stain the top a beautiful walnut color, paint the legs a nice antique white . . . and then . . . beat the heck out of it ;) To give it that old, beat-up farmhouse table look I was going for it.
I’ve been avoiding this table for way too long just because I knew the amount of elbow grease it was going to take. Plus the fact that it would leave my family eating off the floor for several days . . .
And you would think that in the middle of a hot and humid Arizona summer would be the absolute LAST time I would pick for finally tackling this project . . . but what can I say . . .
The girls were out swimming in the kiddy pool and there was a decent cloud cover outside . . . I was staring at the table for the bazillioneth time wondering how she would look after I got my hands on her . . . Then the wheels started turning (always dangerous for a DIYer) . . . And I started thinkin’ and scheming how I could get her out to the back porch by myself (cause the hubby was away at work). Then without too much huffing and puffing, she was outside! And well . . . that was that and away we went! :)
Let me tell you how I did it . . . .
I started out sanding off the thick coat of poly on top. This took a long time. Maybe 3 to 4 hours?? Thankfully it didn’t seem like that long. I got into my grubbies, put on my little face mask, grabbed my running playlist and went to work. And other then the fact that I was itching to run the whole time instead of sand, the time passed fairly quickly :) I used a 60-grit sandpaper first cause the poly was THICK. After it was all off, I went over the whole table with 100, 150, and a 220-grit paper.
Then I got my super sophisticated distressing tools . . . rocks, hammer, nail . . . and beat up the top.
Then came the paint and stain.
I sprayed on several coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White first on the bottom then moved to the top.
I had planned all along to use Miniwax provincial stain. But I went to test it out, and it was WAY darker then I wanted. It looked more like a dark walnut. And since the only other stain that had was a dark walnut, I had to make a quick trip to Home Depot.
I ended up coming home with a golden oak stain. I would have NEVER picked this stain beforehand. The sample was much lighter then I wanted. But I knew it would show up a lot darker on my table then the sample, so I figured I would give it a try. That’s the nice thing about a Home Depot. You can always bring back a can of stain if you use a little bit and the color is not what you were going for.
It also goes to show it’s really important to always do a test section before tackling a whole project. Stain and paint can always look different on various woods and in different lights.
So this is what I had after 2 coats of Golden Oak. The color looked almost exactly what I had envisioned! Yay! I also used my dark walnut stain around the edges to make them a worn look. Then I pulled it and my provincial stain through the rest of the wood here and there to add some dimension.
After that I sanded and distressed the legs. Again, for most of my distressing I just used a sanding block with 100-grit paper, very fine steel wool and a couple of rocks from the yard.
Then I used my provincial and dark walnut stain to darken up the exposed distressed wood. And finally I did a glaze over the whole bottom using these . . .
Jen Rizza gives a great tutorial on glazing if you want to give it a try yourself!
I had been debating a long time on what to use to seal the top. I knew I really wanted to avoid going the polyurethane route if I could. I wanted the wood to look natural and raw . . . not shiny and plasticy. So after reading this very helpful post by Kristine over at the Painted Hive, I decided to use Danish Oil (found at Lowe’s). And after living with it now a few days, I’m really happy with the results. The wood looks BEAUTIFUL! But as a mom of kids, I have to admit it’s definitely not as kid-friendly as a poly. It seals well, but it takes a little bit more work getting crayons, play do and glue off. I don’t regret my decision though. I would use it again in a heartbeat. Instead I think I’ll just buy some cheap placemats that we can pull out whenever the kids want to do crafts on the table.
And here she is! I LOVE her!! I almost feel guilty having neglected her so long knowing now what she could have looked like.
The chairs are all done too! Yipee!!! I’ll do a post soon on how I finished those too . . .
I haven’t sealed the bottom yet cause I’m okay with the legs getting more distressed naturally. If anything, I might use beeswax on them eventually . . .
And the best part is we’re not eating off the floor anymore ;)
Edited to Add: Finally did a post on my numbered kitchen chairs. Check it out!
