Painting the dining room table Post 5: FINISHED!…maybe
The table and chairs are finished!!! (maybe) I am so excited!!! (well I was for around 24 hours). Remember what they looked like before:
And the top was very worn:
And now, drumroll please…………….
Taaa Daaaa!! I love, love, love it!!
Ideally I would have loved a dark brown stained piece for this area, but I didn’t want to deal with all that came with staining this particular table. It does go well with the kitchen area because we have a black fireplace insert right next to this table and my kitchen countertops are black as well. Overall I am very satisfied with the results!
I was worried that the top of the table was so worn that I wouldn’t be able to get it smooth again, but thanks to my sanding friend:
It turned out fantastic! I did use this sander on any part I was able to for the table, including the legs. I did have to use hand sanding on the detail parts of the legs, of course.
Here’s a better shot of the smooth, shiny top:
General Finishes recommends being careful with the furniture until the topcoat has a chance to achieve maximum hardness at 14 days. I plan to do just that.
**UPDATE AFTER ONE YEAR OF WEAR AND TEAR**
If I were to do this over, I would probably clean the top of the table with some TSP or other grease removing cleaner. And I would probably use a primer, but just on the table top. I’ve got a few spots that have lifted up when a glass is sitting with condensation pooling around it for a few hours (I’ve said that we are not careful with this table!!). If you use protection for your table, like placemats/tablecloth and you don’t leave glasses dripping on it the entire day, you probably don’t need to take the extra measures. But overall I am still in love with the results from all the work and I would definitely do it over again!
Now, remember that “maybe” in the title?? If you have read the other posts in this series (which you can do–and I recommend you do if you want to learn more about the products and the process I used– if you click on the “Painting the dining room table” category on the right sidebar) you know that I did not paint the bottom of the table because nobody would see it. Well, I got to enjoy that wonderful, incorrect thought for less than 24 hours after I finished the last application of topcoat. I walked up the stairs from our basement and saw this:
&(*&%%*&^$#@@@!#$%^
Now I had my contacts in, so the view was in focus, unlike this picture. But I refuse to retake this shot. I. don’t. want. to. paint. the. bottom. of. the. table.
I think I’m going to end up painting the bottom of the table.
Darn it.
Would love to hear what you would do in my situation–paint or don’t paint??? Once the chair is in its spot, it isn’t as noticeable. My Man doesn’t think I need to worry about it. What about you? What do you think?
Quick recap:
1) Sand the shine down on all pieces you are going to paint. Took about 20 minutes per chair.
2) Used 3 coats of General Finishes milk paint in Lamp Black.
3) Sand lightly with 320 grit.
4) Topcoat with General Finishes High Performance Water Based Topcoat in Satin. Five coats on chairs. Five coats on table legs and sides. Eight coats on top of table. I did not sand between ALL coats of the topcoat as recommended. Some of them I did though. Used 320 grit sandpaper.
5) Need 14 days before the topcoat achieves maximum hardness, so be gentle until then.
**Don’t forget that if you want to learn about the products and process I used for this DIY project, click on the category in the right sidebar titled “Painting the dining room table”. That will bring up all the posts for this series.
Linking this post to these blog parties:
Power of Paint Party at Domestically Speaking
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Passion for Paint at Mural Maker and More
Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tater Tots and Jello
Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors
Saturday Soiree at A Little Lovely
Remodelaholic Anonymous at Remodelaholic
Catch As Catch Can at My Repurposed Life
Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring
36 Responses to “Painting the dining room table Post 5: FINISHED!…maybe”
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this looks amazing! love it in black. such a great job!
come do mine? please!
Thank you!! I am loving the new look! I don’t know if I’m up to painting another table and chairs yet– if you can wait about 5 years, I’ll get back to you on that
Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting! Your site and projects look very impressive (and live up to the power tools name)!
Thank you for the kind words!
I love how the table turned out! I really love it. Good job
Thanks :O)
I love the table it looks amazing & it makes me want to paint mine !!! :0)
Thanks Jennifer!
I think it looks great and I would NOT paint the bottom. You did a fabulous job!
gail
Thank you Gail, and thank you for highlighting my project on your blog! What a fantastic surprise! I appreciate your input on painting the bottom. I’m glad that comments are all in favor of not painting it so far
Wow, wow, wow. Popping over from Gail’s blog–she highlighted you as a favorite project and I know why. It’s gorgeous =)
Thanks Colleen! I was so excited to be featured on Gail’s blog!!
your table looks great,, i have a similar one that is IN THE WORKS as we speak- you can see a picture of it on the right top sidebar on my blog. My plan is to make it look like a farmhouse table.. I hope it turns out as great as yours. And i wouldnt paint the bottom of the table,, just try not to look at it when you come up from the basement,,lol.
Good luck with the table! I like the drawers on yours. Can’t wait to see it done!
Hi love love love the table it looks great. I would be for the no if I didn’t see it that much but if you walk up those stairs every day I would – could you not just give it a quick spray paint in black – you know not go the whole hog like you did with the rest of the table…just a thought. Great blog too!
Thanks for your comments Jane! If I do end up painting the bottom, I’m with you on just giving it a quick “get enough on that it looks black”. Since the basement is finished, we do use it every day and company uses it also. Hmmm, you might be right, and you are speaking the words right from my head when I first discovered you could see the bottom!
I think this is going to bug you every time you see it. I’m with Jane — just get it covered. But no hurry — wait until you’re in the mood.
Now that I’ve gotten some time away from painting it, I’ve gotten the urge to just get the bottom done too. When I discovered it the day after being done, the last thing I wanted to do was pick up a paint brush. I think it will happen on a day that I don’t have supplies or time for something bigger, but want to get something done that day.
This looks great, I’m about to do the same thing in a couple of days when I finally get a day off work. I’m new to painting as this is my first project, ever, and I’m really confused. The paint technician I talked to said all I needed was the color of paint that I wanted to use. She said to sand down the table, and then paint the table with the color of choice, and that is all I would need to do. Is this correct, because I see everywhere that people use primer and then some protective clear coat on top, so I’m not sure which is correct or recommended.
Hi Kitty! I’ll start this with a disclaimer–I am definitely not an expert with furniture painting. The table was my first attempt at refinishing a piece with paint, but I can tell you what little I know. First, whether or not you prime will depend somewhat on the paint you are using. The Annie Sloan chalk paint that is all the rage in blogland does not require primer, from what I hear (haven’t used it YET
) I talked at length with a lady at Woodcraft, where I bought the milk paint, and she did not have me use primer either. BUT the tabletop is chipping in a few spots and I wonder now if using a primer would have prevented that. Some paints I have read on other blogs, are a primer and paint in one, which you would think would not need a primer, but I have also read that they don’t always perform like they should. I read a post here and here where Kristen used Benjamin Moore Aura paint (primer & paint in one) and it worked good for her. And I don’t think she uses a clear coat on top either. You might get away with not using the topcoat if you are going with a semi-gloss or gloss sheen in the paint, but even then I would do a topcoat on the table top, and maybe the chair tops that will see the most wear.
What I would do to feel the safest about the durability of the table is first prime, then paint, and use a final couple of topcoats in your desired sheen. If you are using white, I would avoid a polyurethane topcoat because it will yellow over time. I believe that polyacrylic is safer in that respect, but I would look it up before buying anything. I think that oil-based topcoats are more durable, but because of stink and VOCs, I don’t use them in my own home, so I can’t comment much on them.
I hope that helps some. The choices can be overwhelming! Painting a table and chairs is a LOT of work though, so you want to see them last. I don’t think you’ll go wrong with primer, paint, and topcoat. Let me know if you have any more questions, or if I was confusing in my answer. If I don’t personally know, I might be able to point you in the right direction at least
i am going to paint a dining room table with leaves. I will use a paint sprayer, but dont know what to do with the leaves. should I tape off the sides of the leaves?
I would probably spray the sides too. If there is any chance that even the slightest bit is visible after you are done, it’s not going to look right if you don’t. Just make sure you give it sufficient time to completely cure (it might give you that info on the can)–I think I waited a week to even use the table after I was completely done, and we were very careful with it for much longer than that because paint continues to cure for long after it is dry to the touch and usable. You don’t want the leaves to stick together if they are in the table. Also, make sure every coat is very thin in that area so it doesn’t remain tacky. Good luck!
I am so thankful for your web page. I love being able to fix things around the house and repurpose things. I have made lots of pillows, valances, drapes, and quilts, i have also recovered chair seats. I started with this table from 1929 two months ago. It had chairs that were falling apart and broken dowels in the table. My origional plan was to stain and varathane, but the veneer was too thin to handle my over-vigorous sanding,( I sanded right through it). Now, my only solution for saving the table is to paint it. I am going to use Kelly moore’s Dura-Poxy paint. I will have to thin it to get it to go through the sprayer, but with your encouraging pictures and description I feel i can do it. Thanks for inspiring all women to give it a try!
Thanks.
Thank you for that Sue! I never considered that I might inspire others when I began blogging, it was all about trying to get things done around my house and having the blog helped make me actually do the projects I was envisioning. I am so happy that others might feel they can do it too, by visiting here. Thank you for taking the time to tell me that
Thank you for posting this project. I love how it turned out. I am a coffee brown fan but black works nicely too. It now looks like en expensive set. I am working on my dining room table too. I was going to refinish the tope with stain but whatever finish it has now is giving my sander a fit and me a headache. It sticks to the sand paper. I really don’t want to use a stripper this time. I will just paint it; it is faster than staining IMO. I pretty much paint everything that is not antique and vintage pieces look best when painted with creative finishes. I have never used milk paint but seeing your result I will just give it a try.
I think I would paint the bottom of the table because it is so visible. If the table were at any other place with no chance of seeing the underside of it, I would leave it unpainted too. Only my dog will see it and she doesn’t care thank goodness LOL.
Thanks Andrea! I’ve bought a small pint of black paint to finish off this project, but other projects keep getting in the way
Dear Pink toes,
Well, my husband has applied three coats of Dura-Poxy paint, Kelly-Moore paint to the top and the leaves of the table. Two coats to the legs. The problem is the sprayer. We have lines; some look glossy and others are more dull. I called three paint stores, all Kelly-Moore, and each seemed to think it was the paint sprayer, the person spraying the paint, or the thinning agent wasn’t mixed into the paint well enough. I am really tired of having this project undone. I just gave the table and leaves a light sanding and i was wondering if you used a regular brush or a foam brush. I have thought about taking the paint sprayer away and trying to just get this thing finished with a brush, if that is the way you finished your table. I have used a thinner as prescribed on the can and recommended by the paint store so that there will not be lines, but this is really maddening and should have shown an improvement. We tried spray painting across the grain and this last time the lines just went the other direction. I called the sprayer’s manufacturer and I am still not convinced that we have had the sprayer adjusted properly. I am just fed up with table and want it to be done and to look as good as yours.
Sue–so sorry you are running into issues! If you have stripes, it does sound like the sprayer. I had a similar issue with mine when I didn’t have it adjusted to let enough paint through at one point. From what I have read, sprayers can be tricky to get just right and it takes some practice to get the technique down. And if you open it up enough to let more paint through, you risk getting runs because the paint was applied too thick.
At this point I would probably get out the brush and forget the sprayer. The sprayer still got a couple of layers on for you it sounds like, so it still sped up the process. I used a foam brush for all of the painting and topcoating on the table and chairs BUT I used milk paint which acts a little different from regular paint. For your project, I would use a foam brush on the detail parts and a foam roller on as much of the flat parts as you can. I did a post on the process I use with regular paint here.
Good luck–I so hope it goes better for you!
What is the finish with milk paint vs. regular paint? Such a beautiful table you did!! I used a foam roller with mine and the top is not a smooth surface, which I wanted – it’s more textured.
Thanks for your kind words! I’ve gotten good results on other furniture using a foam roller, so I’m surprised that you ended up with a rougher surface. Did you sand with 320 grit between coats? I have noticed that sometimes I get tiny air bubbles in the foam roller if I’m too aggressive with the mixing of the paint before I apply it (once I shook the can first–big mistake! Tons of tiny bubbles). The problem is that the paint dries before it releases the bubbles and makes it less-than-smooth. But that’s the only problem I’ve encountered with foam rollers.
My recall of the milk paint is a little fuzzy because I’ve only used it on this project and it was almost a year ago now…I don’t believe it had the finish selection that latex paint has (flat, satin, eggshell, semi-gloss, and gloss). If I remember correctly, it was on the duller side. I did use a topcoat on mine, a polycrylic, in satin finish, so my table does have a sheen to it that the milk paint didn’t have by itself.
Another option is the paint that is used in this post: http://justagirlblog.com/2009/10/you-ask-you-receive.html
I used it on my son’s storage bed and was pretty happy with it. I can’t verify it’s durability because I just finished that project a short time ago, but the application was great with a foam roller. Just another option if you want to try something else out on your next project!
Well, I found out more the hard way. I should have listened to you, but I was convinced to give it one more try.MISTAKE #3,000,000,000.
The Wagner Power Painter Plus doesn’t have enough adjustment in the spray to end up with the correct balance between amount of paint applied and optimal spray pattern for streak free application. I used almost a full quart of paint just trying to cover the leaves and table top, and when I was on the last section, it ran out of paint and started spitting out globs of paint.By the time I could add more paint, the existing table top had started to dry and there was no way to correct it. I tried to roll it with the flat foam roller and ended up with bumps all over the top and the two leaves.
Before I tried the WPPP I talked to the paint men at two different Lowes stores, Home Depot, and Blue Colar, and one Orchard Supply. They all seemed to think that this would produce optimal results on furniture. THEY WERE WRONG!
On Thursday, I sanded all the dry paint.
Today, I bought my third quart of black paint. I am still using the Kelly-moore Dura Poxy. I believe in this paint. Before I started I used a tack cloth to remove any dust and started painting again with a brush. I am using an extender, mixing it really well and so far they are drying with very little lines. It looks a little like wood grain at this point. I think it might need a light sanding before the next coat.
I was just thinking about the next coat.
I thought next time I would first apply the paint with a foam roller, for quick application, and then use the brush to smooth it out. It seemed to take so long just get the paint on when I was applying the paint by hand.
What do you think?
Thanks for taking the time to read about my troubles and offer advice.
I’m so sorry you’ve run into so many problems! You might find that using the foam roller gives you good results anyway, without having to go over it with a brush too…I’d try it out and see. And definitely sand between coats with 320 grit–it makes a ton of difference in the final result, I’ve found.
Good luck–I can’t wait to hear about how it turns out!! I hope you love it
And don’t feel bad about the 3,000,000 attempts–I’ve been there myself. It makes the end result all the more sweet!
Well, now I am just waiting for the paint to dry. Painting with a roller left bumps which meant more sanding.After that, I tried using a flat foam roller followed up with a brush. not accepable. Next, I tried just painting with a brush and using more laytex extender to let the paint flatten our. The results were just acceptable; More sanding.
My husband and I went to the Home Depot and bought a better paint sprayer. It was a Husky brand with more adjustments than the Haulser painter had. Before he painted, I sanded again, I am pretty good at this part, and I used a tack cloth. I mixed the paint really well and he has now applied three coats of the Kelley Moore Dura Poxy. I stayed with this paint because the matching 6 chairs were already painted first.
Once the paint hardens up, I will flip the table over and paint the underside of the legs and put back the antique, old style, metal feet with wheels back on and screw them in. This table has one center colum and four legs that come from the center. I am proud of the way the broken legs turned out and that the table now sets level. The split legs and broken dowels are only a memory from back in July, when I started this project from hell.
When it is all done I will be thankful. The end is truly in sight and I will be thankful for that on Thanksgiving!
This was my first time seeing a blog. I loved it and appreciated your help. There is a true learning curve when it comes to paintj projects.
Thanks,:-)
Uggghh! I am feeling really bad for you with this project!! Glad the end is in sight now
That is a tremendous amount of work you have put into this project. I would have been inclined to take the easy option of ebonizing. However, from a distance the finish looks very good.
The table and chairs look stunning. There is no need to paint the underneath of the table.
Good job!