Painting the dining room table Post 1: Before

One of the first things that I saw when I went to My Man’s apartment for the first time was this dining room table:

I was impressed that this single guy had such a nice table.  It was a good first impression–it got me past the weight set in the living room (which also contained a Halloween orange sectional couch) and the racing bike that leaned against a wall next to this table.  That was 18 years ago.  The table is looking a little lot worn all these years later.  It is at the “I’m embarrassed” by the table stage now.  I’d love to replace it with a new one, but that’s further down the list of things we are going to spend money on right now.

I had such success with the General Finishes stain and topcoat on the leaning wall shelves project, that I’m going to use their milk paint for this one.  I chose their lamp black for the main color, and to give it some dimension I’m going to distress and glaze with General Finishes Red Sienna glaze.  And since I know that the table will have to withstand a lot of use, I’m going to seal it with General Finishes High Performance Water-Based Topcoat in satin.  I sound like a General Finishes advertisement!  I just loved the stain and topcoat on my other project–hope I am just as satisfied with this one.

I’d like to finish this before Christmas. Did I say that out loud??  What am I thinking…