Thursday, August 09, 2018

Dining Room Table and Chairs Re-Do


Two years ago, I posted about wanting to make some updates in our Dining Room - some of the easy things happened right away but the lingering project of refinishing or painting the table was still there.

I'm happy to say that this project is now done! And I hope it will serve us for a long time and years to come because I don't want to do it again anytime soon!

This is my second time to completely refinish this table since buying it and whew - this is just a huge huge job!

You may have seen some of my progress here and there on slow day posts and over on Instagram.

I started out this project using a stripping agent, last time I refinished I sanded the entire set mostly by hand and was hoping not to repeat that. But after trying the stripper again, I have to say sanding is the way to go at least for me. It did not save me any time and in fact took longer than sanding with less results.

An average of four hours per chair is what I ended up spending during this refinish and we did the table in about four hours with all five of us working and a borrowed palm sander.

One of my reasons for putting this off was that I was really undecided about which direction to go once the finish was off. But after seeing the sanded chairs free of finish and how pretty they were I ended up deciding to simply brush on a clear coat of poly and be done.


It is so light and natural and just looks really nice, even the dark edges on some of the legs that we couldn't get any lighter add character and charm!

The chair cushions are from Ikea - such a fun recommendation from a friend and I love them!

This really would've been a very thrifty project if I hadn't tried the stripping agent - I mean it isn't all that expensive either but just sand paper and clear poly is even cheaper. Overall, I just love this table and chairs and that is what made me willing to invest the time and energy into doing this project.

I'm so grateful that we were able to do the table together as a family - it is a great learning opportunity for our children and honestly, that would have taken me hours alone!









It really looks different in nearly every photo because of the varied lighting. And some of these are unfinished and some with the clear coat which did add a tiny bit of darkening to the finish.

You can see before pix here. Last summer, I got one wall finished and you can see an update here.




I bought the buffalo check duvet cover at Ikea this summer thinking it might work for our bed but then realizing I didn't want something that dramatic. I had planned to take it back until I threw it over the curtain rod on a whim to see how I liked it as curtains.

I cut it in half down the middle and stitched up the cut edges and hemmed the bottom and in less than two hours, had new curtains. I did dunk this in a big pot of coffee but it really didn't stain much, I may try to tea stain it again in the future to give a little more distressed look. Either way, I really love how they look and it all feels very cozy and farmy.





4 comments:

Wendi said...

It turned out great! I agree that sanding is the way to go when refinishing furniture.

Mom said...

Looks great and now you can all daily enjoy the fruits of your labor! :)

Shelby said...

Love it it looks very French country with the buffalo check. You are amazing. The end!

Simply Handmade Farmhouse said...

I love it! Very pretty piece. Enjoy it!