"Drab to Fab"

A Table Top Makeover

Hi Everyone!!!

Thanks for joining me today! I have got a quick and easy way to update painted furniture that I want to share with you!

This is my dining room table. I do have a leaf but the space is small and there are just 4 of us in the fam so... I like to keep it this way until I need the extra seating.

The table top was painted a creamy white. Even though I liked it painted; it was painted with layers and layers of latex paint that after heavy use, was bubbling. It really needed to be re-done. Here is a photo of what it looked like before. This photo was taken before the the paint started to bubble.

I do like painted furniture and I liked the softness that the painted table top added to the space. I had painted it with latex paint way before I had discovered chalk paint. I believe that the if this had been painted using chalk paint the result would have been better! But even though I liked the the look of a painted table top, I decided to give it a new look and stain it to match my hard wood floors.

I was a little worried that it was going to be a major overhaul, so I had put off doing it until......one sunny afternoon while I was having lunch with my daughter I absent-mindedly starting picking at the bubbled paint. YEP! This is how I roll people! Of course, I quickly realized, as the paint started peeling off in sheets, that I had "absently" just started a new project. Not only a new project, but one that would have to be done fairly quickly for us to have a table to eat on any time soon.

So ....I said to my daughter, "Oh My Gosh.....Emily, this is so much fun......look!" LOL!!!! And just like when she was 2 and I convinced her it was fun to clean; she started to help me peel the paint by hand. After, about 10 minutes of that, we got scrapers! Here she is working hard......I mean having "FUN"!

The paint really starting peeling off well....so the entire process maybe took us about an hour with both of us working on it. It probably had been painted with 3 or 4 coats of heavy latex paint and that is why it came off so easy. We didn't scrap the edges but left that for sanding later. After it was all scraped off (well.....almost) it looked like this:

Let me just point out that while Emily and I were having "fun", my husband and son had gone to play basketball. When they returned, within that hour, my husband, Garrett, (who shouldn't have been suprised to come home and find something like this in progress) was like....."What? I leave for an hour and this happens?" :) It so cracked me up! At this point, I was ready to move the table outside to do a little sanding and he was very helpful in moving it for me!!!! We call that, good timing! ;)

I started sanding with an electric sander and 60 grit sandpaper to get off any remaining bits of paint and take down the wood grain a little. As some of you may be able to tell from the picture, this is a pine table. Pine wood is a soft wood and Emily and I may have "slightly" scraped a little harder in spots and because it is soft, the pine splintered some.

I know what you are thinking? What a mess, right? But really it wasn't that bad and keep in mind it's only been an hour. A different type of wood may have lent to better results but......I did need to fill a few spots with wood filler before continue sanding. I waited about 20 minutes for it to dry and then continued sanding the top and the edges. I changed the sand paper grit to 180 to do this part.

I finished the sanding process with a 220 sand paper grit, which is a fine sand paper to give it a smooth finish. Sorry.....I forgot to take a picture of this stage. I guess I was to into getting it done. Boo! But after sanding, I wiped it down and applied a dark stain. I used Minwax Dark Walnut that matched the coloring of my hardwood floors. I tend to use this a lot for projects because I love the color and warmth of it, so I had it on hand.

I applied two coats allowing about 15 or 20 minutes within each coat. The sanding and staining took about an hour and a half altogether. After the second coat of stain I let it dry for about an hour.

To finish off the table I used Annie Sloan's clear wax. The application took about 10 minutes. I buffed after 20 minutes and applied a second coat of wax. Again, leaving for about 15-20 minutes and then buffing again. The entire process took about 5-6 hours so that I had it done just in time for dinner!

If you wanted a higher gloss you could use a polyurethane instead of wax. The polyurethane would have taken a lot longer to coat, sand and reapply a second or third coat. (Tedious!!!) I'm not a big fan of poly, either by it's application process or it's look. One of the reasons I used wax is that I like a more natural looking table top which is why I used the soft wax. It gives it a nice satin sheen and it matched my hardwood floors.

So......what do you think?

Emily wanted to help show it off! We had a lot of fun and I got a new look for this table. I do love the stained table top with painted legs. I see a lot of this on some of my favorite blogs, like Miss Mustard Seed. She does some beautiful pieces that have a stained top and painted body. It's really fresh and vintage; which I love!