Refinished kitchen table

We bought our kitchen table shortly after we moved into our house in the Summer of 1995. It came from Target, and was a relatively inexpensive set. At that time we had just spent most of our money on building the house, and our youngest daughter was born two weeks after we moved in (yes, we were those crazy people who built our own house while expecting a baby). Even though it wasn’t a fancy or expensive table, I have always loved it.

This table has seen a lot in the past 20+ years. We’ve had our family dinners, family meetings, and planned out many family trips. We’ve put together puzzles, played cards and board games on it. Many school and craft projects were completed on this table (I think there was still blue glitter embedded in it). Now it was time for a makeover.

I’ve always loved the contrast of whites and wood tones, so I decided to stain the table top and paint the legs. The stained top would hold up better to everyday use while the white legs would be a pretty contrast to the stain. The chairs would also get a similar look.

I tackled the top first, using a stripper to take the stain off. Once the stripper was brushed on and left for a few minutes, the stain was scraped off. This took more than one coat of stripper. Once most of the stain is removed, I took the orbital sander to get the stubborn bits off. I thought it was really pretty just in the raw color.

Once the top was cleaned up, I turned my attention to the legs. I wanted to paint the legs before I stained the top so that it wouldn’t get marked up.

If you are going to chalk paint a piece of furniture, the good news is that you won’t have to strip or sand it. A good deglosser product is what you will need. It will take off the sheen of the varnish and give your paint something to stick to. Just wipe the deglosser onto the piece, let it set a few minutes and then wipe it off. Now the legs were ready to be painted.

For this project I went with Americana Decor chalky finish paint in the color, Lace. I found this at Lowe’s.

Chalk pain is a lot thicker than traditional paint and will dry very quickly. So painting has to be done quickly. I used a high quality brush to reduce any brush marks. The look you are going for will determine how many coats you will want to cover your piece. I knew I wanted the painted portions to be bright and distress the legs in a few places. I decided to paint three coats in the color lace. I then took a piece of sand paper and sanded spots down to the original stain color. It gave the table the distressed look I was hoping for.

After the legs were finished, it was time to stain the table top. I used Minwax Penetrating Stain in the color English Chestnut. This is my favorite color, and I use it for most things in my house (you can tell by the outside of this can). Using a clean, cotton cloth, the stain was applied evenly in circular motions. Keeping with the theme of three’s, I gave the top three coats, sanding lightly between each coat. The final step was to apply a coat of Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane to seal the entire top. I used a gloss to give the top a nice shine.

Next up were the four chairs that came with the set. The chairs took a little more time for two reasons – 1. There were more nooks and crannies to sand, and 2. the seats took longer to sand. Other than a little more elbow grease, the process was the same. I sanded the seats down, gave the back and legs three coats of chalk paint, then stained and varnished the seats.

The kitchen set turned out just as I had envisioned! I’m in love with it’s look and can see us using it for many more years to come. The process was easy for the most part. I’ve learned to be patient as I’m the type of person who wants things done right away. It took about two weeks of evenings and a weekend for me to complete this, mostly due to going to my day job (darn work gets in the ways ~ lol).

I hope you find this helpful. Please let me know what you think. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Much love ~ Becky