Hey fellow DIYers,
Over a 10 day period I decided to tackle my first furniture renovation. We had this solid wood table from our previous home and I just wasn’t a fan of it AT ALL with the colors in our new home.
But after a few long nights, couple of full days and a few thoughts of just stopping and burning the table….I changed the look completely and I’m obsessed 😍
Items you’ll need:
Electric hand sander (I used this one)
Foam applicator brush
Rough sponge (or scotch pads)
Some type of primer for the chairs
30oz Rust-oleum chalk paint white linen
30oz Rust- oleum top coat
Clorox wipes and paper towels
Fans (if doing it during the summer)
—Now I’m going to save you some time by sharing both my mistakes and tips!—
At first I wanted to stain both the table and chairs. Just to give you an idea of how little I knew about this I had only used a 220 sandpaper before applying this white stain onto one of the chairs.
Sadly it was coming right off and that’s when my brother explained I needed to sand down to the wood and get rid of the finish not just clean off the dirt 😅🤦🏼♀️
At first I was doing it by hand and it was taking forever so I went and got an electric hand sander. The chair on the left is sanded and the one on the right is not.
The hardest and most time consuming part was the sanding. I didn’t realize how many details were in the table and chairs until I had to strip off the finish… I tried to go with the grain of the wood as much as possible and still had to sand by hand in a few places.
Once I finished sanding I pre treated the wood with this stuff and it worked really well. I just used an inexpensive foam brush to apply.
The table I did with the kona colored stain. The stain brush worked the best to apply the coats evenly and effectively. I applied it in strokes from side to side and did it one section at a time (either end and the leaf) to make sure it didn’t dry before I finished each section.
I did three coats on the bottom and 4 on top. Now the stain I bought had poly in it but I still wanted to do one top coat. I was careful about avoiding bubbles on top but got lazy on the edge and bottom. After it dried some of the bubbles did to and hardened. I tried to sand them off but that wasn’t effective. So I stained them with a foam brush and now I can’t even tell where they were…I’m guessing it just needed more time to dry.
—First coat of stain—
—Second coat of stain—
Now I finished the table first because it needed 72hrs to cure and the chairs only needed 24hrs to dry.
However, the chairs were a pain. I tried using this stain on them but should’ve skipped it all together.
It just wasn’t giving them the look I wanted and was such a mess to work with. But I decided since I followed the steps and sanded them down I should just consider it the primer.
So instead I decided to use this paint and top coat. Which I loved! One coat covered them really well but I did two just to be thorough. I also had a bowl of water I occasionally dipped my brush in if it started to get hard to smooth out the paint.
My biggest tip for the top coat is to use a short handle brush to help control the strokes. This topcoat only yellows if there’s dripping or an excessive amount (like around the spindles at the seat). As long as you apply a thin coat and check for any excess(remove and smooth out with brush) you won’t have any issues. I did two top coats.
As far as tips for the chairs I did the backs and seat first on all six and then went back and did the legs. Be sure to smooth out each area before moving onto the next. It starts to dry fairly quickly.
Now the last and final steps I did were just for looks. I got these outdoor patio seat cushions from Kohl’s and since they were squared I tacked/sewed them in a couple inches to round them off. This is the listing online but they’re 19 x19 and mine are 18 x18.
I got the super cute and thick placemats to match at Bed Bath and Beyond. Then I got this clear table cover to put over the table from amazon so my kids wouldn’t ruin all my hard work 😅
The center piece bowl and vase fillers I’m not 100% sold on but this is what I have for now. The picture clock on the wall was another recent project that you can find here.
Another successful DIY project with plenty more to come!
If you have any questions just comment below or message me! Thanks for stopping by!
Marks of Motherhood 