Monday, August 26, 2013

Giant Table Makeover

The top before, with yellowed wood and cigarette burns
 I call this makeover "giant" because it was big in every way.  It was a big time score from craigslist, because a nice family who had purchased a new dining set gave it away for FREE.  I knew on first sight I had to have it.  Hubby and I have always wanted a round dining table and we've admired pedestal tables with a white pedestal and wood finish on top.  This was our chance to have something we certainly could not afford.  The table itself is HUGE - the diameter is over 5 feet.  I was worried right up to the moment we brought it in that it would be too big for the space. Now, it needed some work for sure but we were up for the challenge.  The wood finish definitely had a "patina", if you will.
Another view of the tabletop - it was a hot mess
The chairs and covers were filthy
The Before on the chair detail
 It was not a nice color.  It appeared yellowed and it was obvious that its previous owners used it frequently.  It had a few cigarette burns in the top, some black marks on it, glitter, sticky stuff - you name it, this table had it.  The chairs were in the same shape, but required some more intensive cleaning because of all the detail, cracks and crevices in the design.  The seat covers were white at one time but now had a greyish color, and were possibly the most offensive thing about the entire set.

 We got to work on the top, cleaning it up as best we could and sanding the finish off, which was very labor intensive (mostly for hubby).  We did the top and the side, but since we had already decided to paint the pedestal and the apron(?) part of the table, we left the finish on that part.
The edge had to be sanded by hand
 Four belts on our poor, tired old sander were broken during this part of the process.



We found the PERFECT fabric for the seats!
 Meanwhile, I got to work on the chairs.  They took 4 coats of paint each.  I used Martha Stewart's Heavy Cream for the color.  It is my favorite of all the whites, because I really don't care for white, but this one has a warmth I like.  We found a teal and white fabric with a great seahorse print on it - perfect for our house!
After all the painting was done I used a stain to accentuate the detail in the chairs, pedestal and bottom of the table.

The chairs looked better already with a couple coats of paint

The stuff we used to create the new finishes


We chose weathered oak by Minwax because we really like the grey color or it.  We used Watco Danish oil on the tabletop.  It's a product that the wood really absorbs.  We weren't sure about it with the first coat because the color is called Dark Walnut and it wasn't as dark as we expected.  It never did get as dark as what we had envisioned but with a couple more coats and a few hours of sinking in it turned a color that we liked.


 
The stain really brings out the detail in the chairs

I repeated the staining technique around the tabletop detail and on the pedestal as well.  Once everything was dry came the fun part of moving it into the house.  The table top we were able to carefully roll from the porch into the house.  The pedestal, however, was painted in our driveway and had to make it up three steps to get into the house.  Hubby carried it on a handtruck up the steps and had to use all his muscle power to get it into the front door, plus some creative angling since it was so enormous.  Once it was in place and it FIT I was overjoyed.  It looks truly amazing in our dining room.  I am very proud of this project.  For under $100 and several hours of labor we turned it into the dining set we've always dreamed of.

I can't wait to have some friends over to sit around it with us!


It looks fantastic in our dining room!

1 comment:

  1. That pedestal is amazing and I love the wood top with the white base.

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