I Finally Painted the Dining Table

Remember how I was on a building blitz back before River was born? I built several pieces of furniture, but didn't paint or stain them. I'm finally getting that done.

While I was working on the sofa table, I tackled the dining table and benches also. Might as well get all the smelly staining done and out of the way as quickly as possible, since I had to do it indoors, wearing my painting respirator.

The table top is tongue-and-groove flooring with a hand-scraped hickory finish and it has held up much better than the original pine-topped dining table that I built a few years earlier. I trimmed out the table top with oak screen trim, but never got around to staining it. The bare wood next to the hickory top has been a glaring contrast ever since.

I stained the sofa table first so I could experiment a bit with stain colors. After the sofa table, I knew the ebony and mahogany stains I had wouldn't match the table top, but the kona I had bought would match. In fact, it matched very well and the table top looks completely different now.

in the process of staining the legs, table edges already done

While I was at it, I stained the apron and legs to give a nice base color under the paint that went on top. I mixed up some paint using Annie Sloan chalk paint in Country Gray (which is actually a light tan) as the base, with some black and brown paint mixed in. It dried to a nice grayish brown that goes well with the stained top.

table stained and ready for paint

one coat of paint on longer bench, shorter bench waiting for paint

After two coats of paint, I used dark wax on the apron and legs and light wax on the oak trim on the table top and bench tops. Even though the short bench has been down in the guest room in the basement, I stained and painted it to match just in case we need to bring it up for extra seating.

kinda crappy picture

I managed a couple photos with slightly better lighting that show the colors better. I really like how it all turned out. It looks like real furniture now :)

With the dining table and bench taken care of, the dining area of the kitchen is just about done now. I painted the shoe bin and fixed the art frame in the summer. Next up is hanging some blinds in the window. We're hoping to replace the cabinets, counters, sink, and flooring this spring, and when we do we'll repaint the whole kitchen area also. I like the yellow paint, but it makes the white trim and cabinets look dingy.