Refinished Dining Table

We bought this awesome table at a thrift store not long after we got married. It really is a great table. It's solid wood, and comes with three leaves which makes it big enough to fit 8-10 people, which has really come in handy when we host family functions at our house. I never really loved the color, though. It's just not my favorite. I've tossed around the idea of refinishing it for a while now, but only got around to it a few months ago. 

I finally settled on staining it the same color as our cabinets, which I refinished almost a year ago (and still haven't taken pictures of... reason #4587872468 I'm not cut out to be a "real" blogger, haha!), and then painted the legs and trim with white chalk paint. 

It turned out so well! Look at what a difference it made:

I really, really love it! Plus it's given me some (much-needed) motivation to tackle some of the many other projects I have up my sleeve. Hallelujah!

It was a little time-consuming, but pretty easy. Here's how I did it:

First, I stained the top. I know from my experience staining my kitchen cabinets that it is much better to stain and then paint. Staining is messier and if you goof up it's easy to just paint over your mistakes. I used this stain in Antique Walnut, which I had left over from our cabinets. With this particular kind of stain you don't need to completely strip your surface, but it is important to sand it enough to rough it up a bit. I sanded with medium-grit sandpaper first because I really wanted to get through the lacquer, and then used fine-grit to make sure it was nice and smooth. 

Thoroughly wipe the entire surface clean of any sawdust, then start staining. I like to use microfiber towels which are cheap at Home Depot, but old socks work really well too, and I used a mixture of both on this project. I think I did about 3 coats of stain, with the last one being mostly touch-up and evening out the color. 

Once I was finished staining, I painted the legs and trim with homemade chalk paint. I used Bleached Linen by Behr, and made it with the calcium carbonate recipe found here. It was really easy to make, and so far it has held up really well! (P.S. This is my favorite paint brush, and it worked perfectly for this project.) The next thing I need to do is seal the white paint. I know, I know... I really should have done that already. I ordered some finishing wax from BB Frösch and had an unfortunate incident in which it got left outside in the heat and quite a bit of it leaked out of the jar. I'm still grumpy about that, so I'm doing the rational thing and just pretending it never existed and that leaving white furniture unsealed in a room frequented by a sticky toddler isn't going to end in disaster. Clearly I like the live on the edge! 

However, I did seal the table top using another great product by General Finishes: this water-based topcoat, also left over from the cabinet project. It's super easy to apply, and dries so hard. I've been so happy with it! I did 3 or 4 coats, just to be safe, and applied it with some foam paintbrushes like these ones.  

The chairs are Ingolf from IKEA. I considered refinishing them, but then made the (wise) decision that my sanity was worth the price of new chairs. Also, I needed chairs for a few other places in the house, so the black ones are still getting used elsewhere which makes me feel even better about that choice. 

Well, there you have it! Let's take one more look at the before and after, shall we? 

Before...

After!

(This post contains affiliate links. If you use my links to purchase anything I'll make a small commission, which is much appreciated and will probably be used to buy beautiful things like this. Just kidding. Maybe.)

A few snippets from the weekend

We went to the Phoenix Temple open house on Saturday. All these temples popping up in Arizona makes me so happy!

This one is pretty small, especially compared to the Gilbert Temple, and absolutely beautiful.

Eli sat on Dallin's shoulders during the tour. I know he won't remember it, but I loved watching him look all around and take everything in.

And even though it doesn't look like it in this picture, I think he had a pretty good time. :)

We also stopped by to see grandma Carmen, who is always so happy to see us, especially Eli.

I finally used this certificate I got for my birthday about... three, maybe four years ago. About time, right? I'm pretty sure butterscotch squares are what we will eat in heaven. SO GOOD. 

Eli met his doppelgänger at IKEA. He had some pretty mixed feelings about the experience.  

First, interest and curiosity. 

Then exuberant displays of affection. 

Things quickly turned south as deep feelings of jealousy began to develop, and the offending lookalike got a smack in the face...

...and an attempted arm amputation.

But then Eli realized this supposed "lookalike" was lacking his shiny bald head...

...so the jealousy dissolved, all was forgiven, and they parted as friends. 

We finished off the day at Chick-fil-a where the cousins were finally able to hit each other in the face without doing harm. Possibly the best day of their short lives. 

Becca and I pretty much finished up painted the bathroom we started a couple weeks ago, when this picture was taken. We are awful at taking duck-faced mirror pictures (that's probably good thing). Next step: staining the cabinets! Wish us luck! Man, it feels so good to see real progress being made on our house. 

Kitchen

Yesterday I spent most of the day deep cleaning my kitchen. Lately I've been realizing just how much I hate that room (thanks Jen), and although a lot of the changes I want to make are going to require a large chunk of funds that we don't have at the moment, it sure looks a lot better when the dishes are done and everything is squeaky clean.

Spick and span! 

Anyway. Like I said, the last week or so I've been hyper-aware of certain negative features in my kitchen. Because I know you are dying to hear what they are, here's a list:

• Ugly, old oak cabinets stained brown with a hint of orange... yuck.
• Ugly, old counters that are a yellowish off-white color.
• The walls are also a yellowish off-white color... but a different shade than the counters. Oy.
• Fluorescent lights. Need I say more? The fixtures themselves look really bad, plus the weird colored light makes everything look even uglier.
• The sink is very shallow. It always looks like it's piled high with dishes, even if in reality there are just a few dirty bowls. (Although let's be honest, often it looks like it is piled high with dishes because it is.) Also, it's quite old (Our house is even older than my husband! Ancient!), and the steel is dinged and scratched.
• The pantry shelves are problematic... Too tall and too deep to be really useful for smaller things like cans and boxes of pasta. I haven't found a solution that I like yet, at least not one that isn't too expensive. For now some cheap metal wire shelves are making it slightly more bearable.
• The ceiling is lowered everywhere except around said fluorescent lights. It makes the room feel smaller than it really is.

On the bright side, there are some redeeming qualities:

• Dallin bought all new (stainless steel!) appliances when he bought the house several years ago. Yay! And we have a gas range. 
• We have a decent amount of both cabinet and counter space
• I kind of like the ceramic tile floors. I might have chosen a different color, but I can definitely live with it. No problem.
• We have a pantry. Thank goodness. And the things I don't like about it can be fixed without major renovation.
• It's big enough that a few people can work in there at once without it being too crowded.

Even though we'll have to wait a little bit to really start making changes, there's some things I can do to improve it in the meantime. First, that fluorescent light has got to go. I think that will make a huge difference. Once I know what the lighting situation will be, since that affects the color so much, I want to paint the walls. And who knows? Maybe I'll be crazy and just paint my cabinets too. Maaaybe. I'm a little nervous about embarking on that kind of an adventure. 

We will probably be living here for a long time so I'm excited to get my house decorated and arranged the way I want it. If only I had felt this motivated before I got pregnant, but there's no time like the present, right?