Kitchen Table Makeover

I have to admit this is the first time I have ever straight up copied a project from another person…but I liked the idea SO much and the final outcome of the project was so awesome I just couldn’t help it! (Well, there are SOME things I did a little differently. )  I wanted to have a table for the screen porch where we could eat out there, play games, etc.  and I was looking for something that would seat 6-8 people. After much searching for just the right table, I found this one on Craigslist. It’s just what I was looking for…patience is a virtue! It has a leaf that is attached and folds up underneath the table, so it’s easy to use if we need to accommodate for a bigger crowd.

The table was pretty beat up, I mean…well loved by a lot of kids…Parts gouged out by a pencil, colorful magic marker drawings and the gloss finish was slowly chipping away. Exactly what I wanted! My dear friend, Ann, is so sweet and brings me her “Better Homes and Garden” magazines to flip thru and I just so happened to find a teeny tiny little coupon on one of the pages for 25% off a stencil from: Cutting Edge Stencils .

It was so ironic b/c that’s the same website the other girl got her stencil from. I looked at all the stencils, trying not to copy this girl to a “T”, but turns out the Paisley stencil was my favorite one too… it’s just so darn cute! And the stencil is awesome, no bleeds, easy to clean, I was very pleased!

First to prep the table I sanded it down and took all the original finish off the top of it. Then I wiped it down to get the wood dust off. 

after it's sanded

 And it was ready to stencil, that easy! I use white latex outdoor paint and a mini roller-I didn’t use a foam roller because they tend to hold more paint and I didn’t want it to bleed under the stencil. You don’t have to press down too hard…just a light pressure and I did 2 coats.  I layed the stencil in the middle of the table to get started and then I went out from there. 

One mistake I made was turning my stencil because I thought it would look neat not to have a “repetitive pattern” welllllll they are smart and made the stencil to line up and look never-ending..so don’t turn your stencil! Just keep painting, just keep painting... (let it dry, takes about 2 min to dry) and then line it up and paint the next section. Since I turned my stencil, it obviously wouldn’t line up so I had to wait for it to dry and then sand the paint off. Not too big a deal-just a 10 minute detour. 

if you make this mistake, the paint sands off really easy

ran the stencil down the middle first

almost done...

 Another thing I did was wrap the stencil around the edge of the table…I didn’t want it to look like there was a defining plain border going all the way around the sides of the table. 

done stenciling!

When the stenciling was done and the paint was dry, the next step was to stain it. That’s right, stain over all the hard work you just did! Trust me, you’ll love it! I used Minwax-All American and it turned out pretty dark since the wood was sanded down to the raw, so I’m glad I didn’t go with my Kona stain. Make sure you wear latex gloves-staining can get messy and have an old rag to wipe the stain off. I did two coats of stain because I wanted it a little darker in some places.

my sweet hubby helping me :)

After staining

I painted the legs and sides of the table a teal color- the same color I used on the China Hutch. I did two coats, my rule of thumb is two coats of paint on any and every thing you are going to paint! It always turns out smoother and covers any spots you may have missed the first go around. 

I waited 24 hours for the stain to really dry and then put on a semi-gloss poly-urethane to seal it.  

It gave the table a pretty little sheen and it will help protect it some from the elements.

And here she is, in all her lovely shabby farmhouse glory! Don’t yah love it!?

here's how we wrapped the stencil around the edges/corners

 It’s probably been the easiest project I have done so far and I’m SO happy with how it turned out!