This past summer I bought an antique table for my breakfast nook. It had been painted a light cream color. I knew I would have to refinish and reupholster it to make it what I wanted. After months of waiting, I finally did it! Read on for the before and after and to see how I did it...
This was the table right after I got it home...
Once I got it home I did some research and found out that the chairs were made in Portland, Oregon in the 1930's, but the table is fairly new. I had visions of a beautiful exposed hardwood tabletop so last week I slathered the top of the table with Citristrip Stripping Gel.
This stripping gel works miracles! It is safe for indoor use and works better than any stripping agent I have used. It strips through all the layers of paint and saves me so much time. I just slathered it on and then scrapped it off 30 minutes later.
Once the table was stripped, I saw that there were some scratches and light stains so I borrowed my neighbors hand sander and sanded down the top layer of the table until it looked like this...
Since the table was coated in a couple layers of paint which dries wood, I applied a coat of Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner.
Once the conditioner was set, I began staining the tabletop using Minwax Gel Stain -Hickory.
After 2 coats of stain, I finished the project with a couple coats of Tung Oil. I decided to use Tung Oil versus polyurthane or a polycrylic because I love the natural look it gives the wood finish. I also like that if you use Tung Oil and buff it occasionally, your furniture will continually look brand new.
These are some shots of the beautiful finish...
Here are a couple before and afters...
You can tell in these pictures that I had reupholstered the chairs once before. I posted about it this summer, but landed on a more classic fabric once I refinished the tabletop. Before I tried it, I had no idea how easy it was to reupholster chairs like this. For details check out my post about it here.
I love it, love it, love it! Have you ever finished a project and not been able to stop looking at it? I keep catch my eye wandering over to the kitchen in admiration. I had never done this before and now I feel so proud, accomplished, and empowered!
