Refinishing a Kitchen Table

Howdy y’all.

I bet you were starting to think that we weren’t really still over here workin’ our booties off, huh?

Yeah.

Well. You were wrong. ;)

And, I know that this blog is sort of annoying because I just show before and after pictures … but … that’s all I’ve got for you today too. See, here’s the deal: the whole step by step tutorial thing isn’t really me because – truth be known – I have no earthly clue how to do this stuff. Pretty much I tell my husband my idea and then he spends days and weeks executing my idea in one way or another.
And … to be honest … I’m afraid of manual labor. I’m not a snob. And I’m not spoiled or pampered or anything. I don’t go to salons. I’ve never heard of most designer brands.

However.

Please hear me when I say this: manual. labor. is. not. my. thing.

Like, at all.

So, in order for me to give you instructions, I have to ask Superman for step by step details and then type them out here. Because there’s no way I’m showing my face in a 110 degree garage unless I absolutely have to; otherwise, I know I’d get roped into my horrible ideas ALL the time.

So, having said that … please no hate mail about how I don’t show you how to do stuff. You hear me, Rebecca? ;)

By now, you’ve all seen my sad, sad, sad kitchen table. If not, feast your eyes:


What these pictures don’t show is all the thousands of nicks. Scrapes. Fork marks. Teeth marks. Rubber cement marks. Sharpe scribbles. And, white rings from eating hot pizza on paper plates (don’t you hate that?!). This table was in BAD shape. (Somehow these pictures hide that nightmarish problem)


Lucky for us, we bought this bonafide Pottery Barn gem off my sister when she moved to a smaller house and couldn’t fit it. That was 7 years ago … and 2 kids ago. And many many preschool students ago. And, lucky for us, Pottery Barn used solid wood on this kitchen table and benches.

So, Superman sanded the entire thing down to the bones. And when I say he sanded, I mean he SANDED. This isn’t a project where you can just lightly rough up the lacquer. He was re-staining and refinishing the table.

And, since he is Superman, he took the entire table and both benches completely apart, sanded them to raw wood, stained them, and then lacquered everything.

He used a Minwax Wood Finish in a Dark Walnut color to stain the table. Then, he sanded all the fine wood hairs until the table was smooth again. Then, he applied one coat of Minwax Tung Oil with GLOSS finish. When it was dry, he sanded everything down with steel wool and applied a second coat. When that was dry, he sanded it all down with steel wool again and went for a third coat. He repeated the process until the table had 6 coats of Tung Oil. No, I’m not joking. The thing shines like glass and looks amazing.

Here, have a looksie:



And how much more awesome does my little shelf/bar/munchkin table look with that bangin’ new kitchen table next to it? Way more awesome.



Wanna know how much it cost us to get a new kitchen table and benches? $40. + a lot of dedication, sweat, patience, sweat … sweat … and sweat.



For.Ty. Dollars, y’all. Boom. (Ignore the toy dinosaur taking a break on the back bench … I gave him permission)



Now kids … what have we learned today? Buy. Good. Furniture. Because your kids are going to beat it to hell … and when they do … you can sand it all down and refinish it for pennies; instead of forking out more money to buy another table for them to trash.

As always, he did a great job! Sorry, my non-tutorials suck. But, y’all can TOTALLY do this. Refinishing a table doesn’t require a ton of skill or finesse or brains or brawns. Like the rest of our projects, you’ve just gotta be patient. Slow and steady wins the race. :D

Here’s the before and after: