Our dining table needed to be refinished BAD! The topcoat was worn-out, dull and sticky and had a lot of stick figures and names carved into the wood.
I don't have a good 'before' picture but this will give you an idea:
The legs were black and no matter how much I cleaned them I felt like they always had permanent white milk splatters.
Here's a picture after I had disassembled the whole table, sanded, stained the top and re-assembled:
After taping and painting one coat on the legs:
We had 2 Ikea barstools on each end that never matched so I sold those and decided to make ones that would go with the table.
I found the perfect plans on ana-white.com called "Vintage Barstools" and altered the height and overall footprint.
My stools are considerably smaller than her plans and I couldn't fit my drill and the large Kreg-Jig bit inside and was glad I had a right-angle attachment for my drill.
These little corner decorations were a huge pain to cut out but all the work was work it (in the end). I didn't want to do a pocket hole on each edge so I just did one side...
...then hammered a nail to hold the other side. They are glued as well so they won't be going anywhere.
Almost done!
TIP: If you're a first time pocket-holer you should know that you MUST clamp your pieces while you screw them together because they pull apart and/or shift and won't line up once your screw is in.
I put a light marking on my seat boards where the underside rail was so I knew where to put my nails.
I like the look of having the nails showing - it's more rustic looking!
I love the look of the pocket holes after they're plugged, particularly if staining because they are more obvious (is that werid?) TIP: Make sure to butter your hole and the plug with glue, let dry and you can use a sharp chisel to trim it flush to the surface (or you can sand with 80 grit paper).
Here's what the back looks like all plugged up. I also did the holes on the leg stretchers but didn't worry about the underside of the seat.
Here's how the stools turned out after lots of sanding, painting and clear coats.
Here's what everything looks like together. I wasn't sure if the original black stools would look okay but I actually like the contrast.
These are the finishes I used.
Just after I finished my table a friend asked if I could help her with hers:
We took her table outside and sanded many hours together to get the top down to bare wood. For the legs we only roughed them up with sandpaper to remove the glossy finish.
We used the same products I used on my table and it turned out so awesome, don't you think!?
Labels: DIY, furniture, restoration, woodworking
