Kitchen Table Re-Do

The final (big) piece to updating our kitchen was painting and staining the kitchen table. We've had this table for about 10 years - Russ's parents bought it for us way back when it was just the two of us. While I'd love to have a bigger table, this one does the job for the 4 of us, and I can't imagine a different table in the small, angular space that we have. So, it works. But it needed to be a different color. The natural stain just wasn't cutting it anymore, and so I vacillated between painting the chairs and table legs white or black, and staining the top a dark walnut. For the longest time I imagined the table with white legs and chairs, and I think that could have been gorgeous. I was afraid with that, though, that it would blend in with the light blue walls and get "lost" in the kitchen. So, after taking a poll from friends and family via facebook (it was all very official, you know), I decided to go with black + dark walnut for the top.

Now you should know that I'm a lazy painter, so I spray painted the chairs and table legs, after gently sanding them. I just couldn't imagine painting each of the spindles on my chairs by hand, so spraying was the easiest, quickest way to go. In a matter of days, I had the chairs painted and covered with a layer of water-based poly.

The table top was another matter! I had never stained anything in my life, but I was excited to try, and under the impression that it was going to be easy. Ha! My FIL taught me how to take off the previous stain with a de-glosser. That was awesome and saved me so much time over sanding! Once the top was ready, I brought the table into the garage and stained it. About 6 times. I could not figure out why it was taking so many coats to get it to the darkness I desired. I finally realized that I was wiping off too much after each coat had set for the recommended 5-10 minutes. Lesson learned. Also, I had a lot of trouble with the rounded edge around the table top - how do people do that part? I still don't know, but I was tired of trying, and so I just left good enough alone. I am constantly quoting the Nester's phrase, "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." This gets me through a lot of projects. :) Because this was a kitchen table that will see LOTS of use, I wanted to cover it with the water-based poly I had used on the chairs. I had the worst time figuring this out. With the chairs, I had applied it very generously and it all worked out fine. However, on the table top, I could see bubbles and streaks everywhere! I was so frustrated! After about 6 coats of poly (no kidding!), I finally caved and called my FIL to ask him for some help. (He's a wood-working genius!) He showed me how to do a wet sanding technique, which helped me to hide some of the bubbles and streaks that were showing up. After that, he then applied the poly in a VERY thin coat, and that really seemed to make the difference. We did a couple of very thin coats, and then I decided it looked good enough to me to call it done. As I mentioned, I'm lazy and impatient, and I was SO ready for this table project to be finished. At this point, it had been 2 weeks since we'd eaten at our table. Our picnics in the living room were getting old!

So, I'm sure you're on pins and needles waiting to see the finished table, right? ;) Here are a few pictures. I do not have a great camera and my photography skills aren't so hot, either....so, bear with me (and my pictures).

The Before

The After

I love it, and while I wouldn't want to do it again, I'm so happy with the way that it looks and the fact that it's done! So...what do you think? (I only want to hear the nice things!) :)