Refinishing A Dining Room Table With Paint and Wood Stain

Misty
by Misty
I recently refinished a junky and beat up work table into a gorgeous dining room table for my home.
This is the table before. It was pretty beat up and not in great shape cosmetically but it was solid wood and heavy.
Stripped the whole thing down using a paint stripper compound.
After sanding it down first with a 100 grit paper and then with a finer 220 grit paper, I applied the minwax dark walnut stain. Be sure to give the stain about 5 minutes to soak in and then come in behind it with a clean cloth to wipe away any excess. If you don't wipe it up, you'll end up with a sticky table top.
After staining I applied 3 good solid layers of Minwax Polycrylic in Satin. This will give me a good hard and durable finish that should stand up to my kids abuse.
For the legs and side of the table I mixed together a batch of my home made chalk paint (recipe: http://www.diyhomeinterior.com/homemade-chalk-paint-recipe-plaster-of-paris/) and painted them a lovely light sage green. After that dried I applied a layer of clear soft furniture wax and then buffed it with a clean cloth.
The finished table turned out beautiful and is well protected. You can see the entire project on my site http://www.diyhomeinterior.com/refinishing-dining-room-table-paint-wood-stain/
Frequently asked questions
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  3 questions
  • Nancy Harrell Nancy Harrell on Apr 03, 2017
    What's the purpose of using chalk paint for the legs if you are putting a wax coat over it? Isn't the purpose of 'chalk' paint is that it leaves a chalky finish?
  • Susan Susan on May 25, 2017

    Yes except my table top is painted over formica? Chalk paint on top of this?

  • Valerie jones Valerie jones on Oct 23, 2017

    Love this—great job!! I have such a problem applying poly- do you have any tips on this? How/what did you apply the poly with?

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