Kid's Table Envy This Holiday Season!

by Lori Beth Merrill

4 Materials

$30

4 Hours

Easy

What is funner than sitting at the kid's table for family get togethers? Sitting at a stylish oak cersused table with ladder back chairs and rush seats. Photo op's anyone?

I found two of these 3 runged children's chairs in a shop in Massachusetts while visiting my brother. Unlike the shelves I found last year, these chairs would not fit in my luggage. My brother graciously mailed these to me USPS. icon

The table I found at Goodwill. It is oak but was stained and shellacked. You can see on the table top where I began sanding on the left and then tested the wood with a gray wash. The wash wasn't quite what I was looking for but I found an awesome way to finish the oak.

I prepped the chair by covering the rush seat.

Side note - At the turn of the twentieth century, an embargo was placed on the importation into the United States of rattan reed coming from the Orient. Reed is a natural living plant. Manufacturers of wicker furniture in the U.S. using reed or rattan were forced to come up with an alternative weaving material - and thus the advent of Paper fibre or "rush." Rush was constructed from a paper pulp that was treated with sizing and glue and twisted in a rope-like fashion. It is super porous so you want to make sure you don't get rush anywhere near paint or stain.

After stripping the table with Citristrip and sanding it, I used a paint brush to apply Vintage Wood by Amy Howard. The picture was taken when the table was partially dry but you can already see the natural reaction of the product and the tannins which turned the table a lovely gray color. I reapeated the application of Vintage Wood several times, waiting for each application to dry.

I painted the chairs and table legs with Amy Howard's one step paint. The color is called "A Good Man is Hard to Find." I sanded the legs and chairs in between the two coats I applied with 100 grit sand paper. Sanding sponges are great for sanding wood that is round. The table is so pretty I could have left it as is but I applied another product.

Do you see the lovely highlight of the oak grain? That occurs after applying Amy Howard's cersuing wax. I waxed the chairs and the table with Amy Howard's "Mind Your Own Bee's Wax." It is already liquid and helped even out and lift some of the excess cerusing wax and helped seal the chairs and table from little figgy pudding hands. The liquefied bee's wax is easy to apply and such a time saver.

So which table do you want to sit at - Grown-up or kids? Happy Holidays!

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