Well hello my friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend!
I am so thrilled to have this project done -- I've sat on this for a year now. If you've been around for awhile you know it sometimes can take me eons to figure out what I want to do with a space. I will live with it for a long time before I know what I want.
This works well for me because I usually love the end result -- but as you know it usually means I take seriously forever to complete a space. Our kitchen is no different. I've had the ideas of what I want to do in my mind for a very long time. Years I've planned it out. When we took down the wall in the family room last year my plans changed a bit because we were able to really move things around in a way I wasn't expecting.
That included moving our kitchen table from over by the cramped bay window to between the family room and kitchen. I cannot even express to you how much better this works! Last year I found a new, bigger table after a long search:
I just couldn't decide how I wanted to finish it. The table is rubber wood and has held up GREAT. The top is made up of sections of wood, almost like a butcher block, but the sections of wood are smaller. It doesn't have the look of long planks of wood like other wood tables do.
For that reason I wasn't sure I wanted to stain it -- I'm sure it would have turned out just fine, but I was also wanting to do something different than my typical stained top and painted legs (I've done that twice now). The natural look was pretty but we have so much beige in this room already -- the island top is a lighter wood, the table, the walls, the sofa -- all were the same tone:
I needed some contrast! So I made a decision a few months ago and finally got it finished up yesterday. I just love it!
Here's a pic of how the wax held up -- horribly:
One of you warned me about this when I shared how I did it. I used a regular furniture wax on the table and buffed it like crazy. It looked great at first! But it did not hold up well at ALL. You can see there how gross it looked -- that was a clean table! No matter what I did it looked like that.
So it was time to get that wax off of there. I used a 150 grit sandpaper (I used sheets that I wrapped around an older sanding block):
You can also use an electric sander but I find they leave marks occasionally and the dust gets a little crazy. Mine has a dust catcher and it still escapes. I wanted to avoid having to take this beast outside (it's heavy!) so I did the sanding myself. It didn't take long at all -- I actually loathe sanding but it wasn't bad.
Because I was painting and not staining, I didn't have to get every bit of the wax off. If you are staining you need to sand really well to get any residue off:
You'll want to wipe down the table well to remove all dust, then make sure it's completely dry before moving on.
I did two coats of BIN primer on the table first:
I used a small sponge roller to do everything -- the top, the apron and the legs. I knew immediately I was going to love the new look:
The primer gave me a good idea because I was going white. And I LOVE it!:
It is SO lovely! I love the look of the white table with the wood floor and chairs.
I wanted to pull in the lightness of the trim on the walls. Going dark on top felt too heavy to me:
I did two coats of primer and one coat of semi-gloss white on top, two coats on the legs and skirt. I liked that I could still see the grain just a bit with the one coat on top so I stopped there.
I haven't put a poly on it yet -- I'm thinking the semi-gloss will be enough, but we'll see. I'll let you know how it holds up. I've never done a white table before! I'm not afraid of markers or crayons because I can scrub this finish just fine, that's why I use it on our walls. :)
I feel like the white lets the pretty lines of the table really shine:
I also considered gray -- but I have enough of that in this space. Black was an option for a hot second but again, it felt too heavy. We already have a large dark gray fireplace and a massive island in the same color.
This feels right and I'm so glad I waited to decide what I wanted to do:
I didn't distress it at all -- distressing stresses me out. I'll let that happen on it's own, cause you know it's going to happen.
I couldn't resist putting some fall decor out on the "new" table -- I got these beauties from HomeGoods and TJ Maxx. The runner was also from HomeGoods:
I have a bit of an obsession with those velvet pumpkins -- I started collecting them last year. They are so pretty. Just a note -- it takes a few weeks for paint (especially glossier paint) to fully cure. So you'll want to baby it a bit at first.
Here's a fun before and after -- this view soon after we had the doors installed:
And that view now:
I love that the light seems to stand out even more now too -- everything kind of melted together before. I'll let you know how the table holds up and if I make any adjustments over time.
The drywall guys were supposed to be here today but had to move to tomorrow -- I cannot wait to get the walls in the kitchen closed up! Since I'm at a bit of a standstill I'm heading out to the garage today to decrapify. Wish me luck!! a