My New Kitchen Table - DIY

 Matt and I had identical tables when we got married. Because his was already in the house we live in now, we found a new home for my table. I was never a big fan of the honey oak color but I loved the table.
After 3 years of begging, Matt finally agreed to let us give this beautiful solid wood table a make over.

Our cute little helper

Matt's Mini at Lowe's

We started by taking it outside - such an important step, right? ;)

Matt decided it would be easier to paint the base by taking it apart instead of taping it off. Once detached from the table top, I went to work painting the base.
I've been researching how to use Chalk Paint because it seemed like such a good product for refinishing but I figured to make it easy, I would just stick with spray paint.
We went with Rustoleum Heirloom White in Satin. It's such a beautiful color and I use it for almost all my accent pieces in the house.

Once I finished painting the base and the wood molding around the table top, we let it dry and put it back together.

Then the real fun began.  SANDING. Even with an electric sander, it was the worst part of the project. My hands and arms still hurt from pushing the sander into the table to get rid of all the old varnish and stain.
We weren't sure if we were going to finish sanding before bed but it was my goal to get the paint and sanding done in the same night. We had to switch each other using the electric sander and sanding with our hands because they would eventually cramp up.
I convinced Matt to really give us the benefit of the doubt that we could finish the sanding and apply the stain before bed tonight - And we did!!

(We used a #80 grit sandpaper then #150 to clean it up but finished with a #400 grit. The wood was like glass. It was so beautiful and soft to the touch.) 

We applied the stain around 10pm. The stain we chose was called Kona by Rustoleum. It turned out so beautiful. I couldn't decide between Dark Mahogany and the Kona color but I'm so glad I chose the one I did. It looks stunning, especially on top of the white. 

Matt kept saying, “Why didn't we did this years ago? It's beautiful.”

It was too late to add the varnish and we needed the stain to really soak in, so we left it over night until I could find time to apply a coat the next day.
It took 4 coats to really give it the look we wanted and the durability we needed, knowing that a toddler would be beating the heck out of this thing.

I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the chairs. I tetter tottered with the idea of just painting them white like the table base, until I found a beautiful green (Oregano) colored (Rustoleum) spray paint at the Home Depot.  I bought one can, just in case it looked horrible, but after spraying just one coat on one of the chairs, I was in love!!!
I spent all week painting them until Friday morning when I applied the varnish.

I've been sewing place mats during Zeplin's nap times. I have so much left over fabric that I just really wanted to see if I could make my own. I also had one more large panel of fabric (the same fabric I used for the Camper) It works just perfect for a table cloth.

Once all the clear coats dried and it was complete to our standards, we brought our pretty new kitchen table & chairs back inside.

I absolutely love our family dining table now. It's so beautiful -(As I've said throughout this whole post.)

By making my own table cloth and place mats, the only money we had to spend was on the stain, finish, and green spray paint. (I already had the white - It's seriously my go to color for everything) Every thing totaled less than $50.00! DIY WIN for Dessa!
And Matt doesn't have to eat his food on the couch anymore, with the ever eager & annoying Quincey Cat.