Dining Table makeover

Our good friends the Green family had outgrown their table and so kindly gave it to us. As Justin will attest to, I grab up anything that's free. I did the same here not fully thinking through what I would do with it. It couldn't be that hard to refurbish a dining table and chairs. Despite not having a plan we are happy to now have two electric sanders, a dining table with 6 chairs instead of 3 and we know more about sanding, painting, etc.

Here is a quick look at the process.

Step one: Clean
I scrubbed the table and chairs and pintrested (nope, not a word, but you get what I mean) to decide on colors

Step two: sand down table top and seats
Easier said than done. I was definitely not going to sand the rest. Justin was a big help on this part.

Step three: wipe clean




 Step four: apply stain
Step five: apply varnish to stain
Justin came in and saved the day on staining the table. I was not going with the wood grains because it was drying too fast. Together we got it done!

This took several days to allow drying time in between coats and chairs.


 After this step we were very happy with the color of the stain, but nervous for what to go on the rest of it. Thanks to friends and family advice we chose Old White chalk paint and I found a seller in Weisbaden!
 Step six: paint white
This took weeks! Thanks to Sam's own curiosity and apparently great photography skills, I have pictures of myself painting. Yes I am 6-7 months pregnant.



This one just has a great view of the cathedral we live next to.
Allow to dry. Apply finish coating, and allow to dry.

To my utter disgust, as I cleaned off the first food remnants I found on my beautiful white paint, the white paint came off with it. I freaked out! It took a year and a day to paint those chairs, okay not really, but it sure felt like it. So I did not allow anyone to sit on them until I bought the American spray paint lacquer and did it again!

This time I tested it with the first one. It worked. Overall the process took several months.

Justin did not think it would turn out to look professionally done, since it was done by amateurs.  But we both love how it turned out. Thank goodness, because I am not about to do it again any time soon.

What a feeling of accomplishment, whew!

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