These are the before photos of the old drop leaf farmhouse table
I purchased on Craigslist for $30.
This is the exact condition it was in when I purchased it.
Not much to look at.
Because I wasn't sure of the exact age of the table
other than it was really old,
I couldn't sand the paint safely.
Any paint from 1978 or older can contain lead,
and shouldn't be sanded.
So I started out using this safe stripper.
It worked okay for most of the project.
I wasn't too thrilled with the stripping process at first.
It's kind of messy,
but through some trial and error I managed
to get the table stripped to bare wood.
Then I stained the top.
I went with the Golden Oak color from Minwax
since this piece is going into my dining room,
I wanted the stain to match the existing dining room table
as closely as possible.
But, once the stain was dry, I could see areas where there was still
a yellow paint on the wood.
The paint color was nearly the same color as the bare wood
and impossible to see before I stained it.
I was ready to just paint the whole thing,
or burn it.
Luckily, my coworker spends a lot of time refinishing furniture,
and he brought in the stripper he uses called Klean-Strip.
He suggested I use that with some steel wool.
And that, thankfully, removed the majority of the yellow paint.
Then I restained the table top.
I also decided to paint the word "Family" on one of the table leaves.
So after asking Big E's opinion, I decided on a font
and transferred it to the table.
All you need to do to do this
is to print out the word on paper.
Coat the back of the paper with chalk
(I used my grandson's sidewalk chalk)
position the lettering where you want it
and then use a pencil to trace the word.
When you remove the paper, the lettering outline should be visible in chalk.
At the very least there should be a visible indent in the wood from the pencil.
I then redrew the outlines on the wood with the pencil
and then painted.
Some of the letters I ended up having to do freehand because the outlines were very faint.
Then came the painting of the legs and base.
I opted to use spray paint.
I did use a spray primer first before using Krylon Maxx Gloss Ivory.
It took 2 cans of the Ivory to get a good solid coat of paint.
Then 3 coats of poly coat and it's done!
Not too shabby for a $30 table.
I plan to use the table here under the bay windows in the dining room
to hold photos and plants.
And for those times when we might need more table room for large parties,
I have the table there to use.
