If you’re looking for an easy way to give your furniture a facelift try chalk paint! It is quick and easy to use with amazing results! Take a look at my chalk paint dining room table makeover!
When we moved into our house about 3 years ago a friend of ours asked if we wanted his dining room table set. We already had one, but I liked his better… well I liked the potential of his better, so we sold ours and took his.
I don’t know about you but I have a tendency to have really great ideas and big plans and it can take me awhile to execute them. This table was no exception.
It had some flaws in the finish, the chairs needed re-covered… it needed a general makeover. Well, I recently painted my dining room, got new curtains, and a new china cabinet. So it was high time this makeover happened!
My dining room table is rarely used for actual dining… it’s more of a home office and homeschool space. At any given time there are notebooks, papers, laptops… It’s tough to get it cleared off let alone out of comission for a few days!
Here’s how I approached my chalk paint dining room table makeover-
First I made a plan! I knew that the top would need to be sanded down to make it nice and smooth for a new finish. I wanted a dark top and white legs so I went with a stain/polyurethane blend for the top and white chalk paint for the legs and chairs.
With the help of my dear hubby I lugged the table top out to the garage to get sanding. Using a little handheld electric sander I sanded all of the old finish off down to the wood.
When you are sanding off old finish it’s best to start out with a coarse sandpaper, such as an 80 grit and work your way to a finishing one like a 200.
I only sanded the top because I planned to paint the lower portion with my chalk paint. Once I finished sanding I wiped it down to remove all the dust then started with my stain.
I used this stain/polyurethane combination because I wanted a nice shiny finish. This tiny little can was enough to do 3 coats on my table top to get the color and finish I was looking for. I used a small paint brush and a foam brush together to make sure the finish went on nice an smoothly.
** A word of advice here… if your table has a leaf remember to do it at the same time… I may or may not speak from experience**
Now unlike the stain, the chalk paint doesn’t require much prep at all! That’s why I love it, not a ton of sanding or prep work, just clean everything off really well, let it dry and you’re ready to paint!
It also covers a multitude of imperfections. My chairs had a lot of bumps and scuffs and it just smoothed right over them! How much prep you put in has a lot to do with the finished look you want too. I knew I was going to distress my final paint job so a few knicks and scrapes in the wood would fit right in. If you want your final product to be uniform and smooth make sure to smooth out whatever you are painting first.
Now this chalk paint dining room table isn’t my first project with chalk paint, I used it for my pet feeding station, my homeschool cabinet, and even my mason jar salt & pepper shakers. My brand of choice is Waverly which is available at Walmart. You’ll need your chalk paint color of choice plus wax to seal your final product.
My first step before beginning the chalk painting was to take the cushions off all the chairs and get everything ready to paint.
I painted each chair and the table legs with three coats, letting them dry in between coats. Then using a fine grit sand paper I lightly sanded the edges and a few spots here and there to distress them.
Once I got the look I wanted I covered everything with 2 coats of wax, once again letting them dry in between.
There is a lot of waiting for things to dry during a project like this. That’s why its great to have everything prepped before you get started so you can move from one thing to the next and keep the process going!
Now my chair cushions were in horrible… I mean horrible shape.
Right after we got the table I re-covered them. I had some canvas pieces left over from a project that I thought would work quite well. I should have known better than to cover them in an off-white because I promptly spilled coffee on one, and my cat took up residence on another leaving his dark hair all over it.
This is why we can’t have nice things….
Since I learned my lesson with the canvas I opted for a fabric designed for outdoor furniture. I found a great color on clearance at Joanne Fabrics and bought it all up. It’s nice and thick plus it’s treated to be water and stain resistant… so, therefore, coffee and cat hair resistant. That plus the darker color makes it far more practical for my house.
You can find a huge variety of outdoor fabric at most fabric stores, or you can even order it on Amazon!
The process to recover a dining room chair is pretty simple, a few screws on the bottom, a lot of staple pulling, and then stapling the new fabric on.
If you need a detailed tutorial HGTV has an awesome one with all the steps outlined simply! It’s a pretty easy process that’s perfect for anyone just starting with furniture makeovers.
Once all the paint, stain and wax were dry and the cushions recovered it was at simple process of putting everything back together!
What a difference, right? I am super pleased with how it turned out, it made a huge difference in my dining room! (it managed to stay clear for about 7 seconds after this picture was taken!)
Hopefully, this inspires you to take on your own chalk paint dining room table makeover! It is an easy and affordable way to give your dining room a whole new look!
I love all the upcycling projects. It’s amazing how a lick of paint can change an old piece of furniture into something exciting 🙂 Your project actually made me think about a way of upcycling my old folding table. I’d probably use some pallet wood to do the table top. Do you mind if I’d send you an email with some questions? Thanks for sharing Krista!
The results are impressive! What paint did you use?
I used the Waverly brand chalk paint from Walmart!