Refinishing our “plain jane” dining table

I’m sprucing up our dining room and the most obvious thing that needed help was the dining set. It’s from my husband’s bachelor days and not what I would choose myself. The chairs are on their way out, but the table fits the scale of the room pretty well and it’s solid wood.

Before

We eat here everyday and frequently use the table as a desk and an area for projects. It gets a lot of use, and with a toddler, I’m not convinced spending money on a replacement would be a prudent decision at this point in time. With nothing to lose, I decided to give it a makeover.

While I was initially pretty torn about what to do with the table, I decided just to go with one color on the whole thing. I like the two-toned tables, but along with the shape of my table, it would have ended up looking very “farmhousey,” and that’s not really what I wanted. Also, the combination of a chair color, a leg color and a top color would end up looking way too cluttered.

So I did some experimenting on a piece of scrap wood that was similar to the color of my table. (Disregard those brown crayon scribbles. That was someone else’s idea of color experimentation.)

I had a unopened quart of gray paint already on hand (from a free paint promotion), so that’s where I started. But it was looking a little flat, so I took the ebony (black) stain originally intended for this project and put a thin coat over top of my paint. It was a little darker, but so much more dimensional! I knew that was the direction I wanted to go.

First thing, I hauled the table down to the garage and propped the top up on a couple of plastic kitchen trash cans. (I don’t have saw horses, so next best thing.) Then I sanded the clear coat off with a power sander and coarse 60 grit sandpaper. I did the same with the legs, except that I didn’t use the power sander. Hands only!

After cleaning off all the sanding dust, I applied two thin coats of the paint (Glidden’s Driftwood Gray) with a small foam roller. I didn’t use primer because I wanted the paint color to soak into the wood. (In case the table top acquires any deep gouges, they might be more camouflaged. I’m hoping, anyway.) For the legs, I did use primer, because I couldn’t get all of the original finish off in the crevices with my hand sanding.

After two coats of paint on everything, I applied the ebony stain very thinly on top with a rag. I wiped it on and wiped it off immediately, in effect using it more like a glaze than a stain. I rubbed it around in circles and blended as best as I could, but I didn’t want the finish to be perfectly uniform. I should note that this process draws attention to every imperfection in the surface: paint bumps, scratches, fuzz, lint, stray hairs, paint brush bristles. Beware!

Also, it’s important to wear gloves (latex are OK) when staining. You really don’t want stain all over your hands; it doesn’t come off easily.

After that was nice and dry (about 24 hours), it was time for a clear coat. I had over half a can of indoor/outdoor polyurethane left over from refinishing the front door, and I thought it might hold up to more abuse than a water-based, indoor-only product. While I love the crystal clear Minwax polys, they don’t stand up to water very well. A little prolonged dampness and you get a ghosty white blob on your surface. It usually disappears once it dries out, but really it’s just not the right product for a dining table.

This product states can be used for kitchen counters and bar tops, so I figured it would also be safe for a table top.

But before applying it on the table, I put a coat on my tester piece. This type of polyurethane can give a yellow tinge to the final product and I just wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be too yellow. The difference was very subtle. Hardly noticeable, but it did make the color a little warmer. Full speed ahead!

The directions suggest using a natural bristle brush and cleaning up with mineral spirits. This is too much for me to bother with, so I use an aging paint brush and just throw it away after each coat. Sometimes I even use a large foam craft brush. I don’t think “they” recommend using a foam brush for polyurethane, but I’ve found as long as you use a bit of finesse, with long broad strokes and don’t sponge it on (creates bubbles), it looks just fine. Foam brushes produce thinner coats too, so you might have to give it more than two or three. No matter what type of brush you use, be careful not to overwork it. The fewer strokes, the better.

Because I already had the paint and polyurethane, the price of this transformation was equal to the price of a small can of stain — just $5! (And I hardly used a third of the stain.)

Our new chairs just got here (and I haven’t had a chance to take photos yet). They are a similar dark brown to the chair above, so when I was photographing the table, I pulled it over for a color approximation.

This isn’t my dream table, but I love the way it turned out. It shed it’s former life as the ubiquitous, big box table it once was and almost looks high-end now. (Almost… I’m not kidding myself too much.)