Rustic Farmhouse Trestle Table Makeover
A few years ago I bought a vintage Ethan Allen trestle table and chairs from a local selling site. It had been stored in someone's garage for quite some time and appeared to have been used for many games of beer pong. The table top was covered in a very sticky residue and had dents, dings, and water rings, but it was the perfect size for our kitchen and I knew good cleaning and makeover could fix all of that.
Here's what it looked like after we cleaned her up.
At the time, we had just moved into a new house with lots of projects going on so I put the table makeover on hold. I did makeover the chairs shortly after getting them. I had to sand the seats to remove some of the deep scratches. I then painted them with homemade chalk paint. This was my first adventure using DIY chalk paint and wax and I've learned a ton since then. First, I had used Plaster of Paris to make my chalk paint. I later found out that PoP has carcinogenic particles that are released with sanding. I no longer use PoP due to this fact. Second, hand waxing is a chore. I bought some paste wax (I'm thinking it was Howard's??? but can't recall). It took a lot of elbow grease to "wax on. wax off" as the old Karate Kid saying goes. However, I would like to point out this wax dried into a very hard coating and the paint and wood have stood up well to 2+ years of use and abuse. I recently stood in these chairs while painting my kitchen cabinets and I didn't worry at all about damaging the seats. Would I wax anything in the future? Doubt it. I prefer using General Finishes top coats instead of wax.
In this picture you can see some of the damage on the table top. I sanded it down with an electric sander to get a smooth surface.
The table base was scuff sanded before being primered. With old, dark stained furniture it's important to use a good primer before painting with a light color of paint. Can't state that enough folks!
For a step by step tutorial and the products I used pleae see the blog post.
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4 comments
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do you have a link to your blog please
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I have this dining set, bought it new. What stain/finish did you use on table top
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