A few weeks ago I shared Part 1 of this makeover where I showed you the finished chairs. This week it’s the table’s turn to be debuted. I cannot tell you how happy I am with how this table turned out. I used all the knowledge that I had gained painting my quilt cabinet, lounge Don chairs and the dining chairs (as well as a few other projects that I haven’t shared yet),so that my table turned out exactly how I wanted it. I couldn’t be more happy with the results!
This table was in pretty rough shape – it had marks all over the top and when I first brought it home, it smelled really bad. It’s been sitting under our house for the last year so, thankfully, all the smells had dissipated.
We don’t have a garage (working on that) so I ended up painting the table exactly where it was going to stay. The weather was too changeable to paint it outside so we just laid down a tarpaulin and off I went. You can see in the picture below the lovely leg details on this table. I just couldn’t believe it when I was gifted this – so amazing.
As with any painting project, I cleaned and sanded the entire table first. There were some places where it needed more of a sand as the finish had come off completely.
I decided to paint the top white and the legs the same colour as the chairs, Heirloom from the Fusion Mineral Paint range, which is such a lovely blue.
Painting this table was much more of a process than I had anticipated. I read a blog post about how to get a really tough finish on a table so I followed the process. I painted the first coat using a roller but I didn’t like the finish. There were too many bubbles and I didn’t like the texture so I ended up brushing it over the top. Here’s what it looked like with just the roller.
As you can see, it doesn’t really look much like the smooth finish I was going for. After it was dry, I gave it a wet sand to make sure everything went back to being smooth. Another lesson learned here, I wasn’t patient enough and I sanded it too quickly which meant I had to repaint a small section (you can see in the picture below). This meant it actually took longer than if I had just waited – argh!
Next, I added a coat of Mineral Fusion Tough Coat.
About now, you’re thinking I’ve lost my mind!!!!
I know that tough coat is meant to be the final step but I have read that if you put it between the layers of paint, it makes it ultra-tough which is what I wanted for this table.
I let the Tough Coat dry for a whole 7 days (mostly because I didn’t have time to touch it again until then). Once it was nicely cured, I added another coat of paint. There were a couple of areas where I felt I needed to touch up with a third coat so I did that.
Lastly, I gave everything a wet sand with a fine grit sandpaper.
The last step in the process was to apply two coats of Tough Coat. Having learned from applying it to my chairs, this time I wore gloves and I applied it with the chamois side of a Chux Scourer 3 N 1 Bathroom Foam Scrub sponge.
I let the Tough Coat dry for another week, then I gave it another quick wet sand with fine grit sandpaper and applied another coat of Tough Coat.
Have you been counting? All in all, I applied 5 layers to this table but it was well worth it as it turned out amazing.
Now came the hardest part. I had to wait for the paint to cure for THREE WEEKS! I know that sounds excess but it’s well worth waiting. When I painted the quilt cabinet, I didn’t wait long enough before shutting the doors and I scratched the paint. After putting in all this work, I was sure I wanted to wait until it was perfectly cured so as not to risk damaging the finish.
I can’t tell you how incredibly happy I am with this dining suite. It’s like a brand new one, even better because it's exactly what I wanted. The table top is super smooth and has a lovely light sheen.
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June 11, 2022
Hi, my name is Carol Karl. I live in little old New Zealand. My family and I strive to live the most ‘real’ life we can – by that I mean that we eat real food, we live real lives and just generally be our most authentic selves.
