IT. IS. FINISHED!!!!

Hello again :) I hope you enjoy today's journey!

My dining set is FINALLY finished!! WooHoo!!! This week I'm going to take you along to see just exactly what we did to the table and then show you the whole set. Are you ready?

I found this set on Craigslist and instantly fell in love. I didn't necessarily "love" the way it looked but I loved it for what I knew it could be. My husband, not so much . . .

Luckily he was willing to go along (I think just so he could say "I told you it wouldn't work" later!)

The first step to refurbishing the table was to give it a GOOD scrubbing with TSP. Believe it or not, the apron and legs of this set were originally white . . . or at least a much lighter version of what you see here.

Even though it didn't smell like smoke, I'm pretty sure this set had lived with a heavy smoker at one time.

Once the nasty yellow gunk was removed it was time to fix the gouges. I lightly sanded the gouges, applied wood putty and waited for it to dry. When it was good and dry I sanded again. Then it was time to paint!

I have to tell you the redo of this set involved a lot of blood, sweat and tears. And this table top caused more than it's fair share of the tears!! Because the table top was a veneer it couldn't be sanded down and stained. That is possible with some veneers but because of the gouges it had to be painted. First we tried spray paint in a can. Oil Rubbed Bronze is the color I chose. The first couple coats were definitely an improvement but it looked streaky. A third coat didn't seem to help. We decided to apply another coat with a roller. That helped some but it still wasn't the look I wanted. (Queue the tears!) After the fifth and final coat I finally decided I was over having a perfect table top!

Let's just move on to painting the apron!!

And the legs . . .

 After the paint dried I applied a coat of antiquing glaze.

 I prefer to wipe some of the glaze off with a damp sponge and follow up with a clean cloth.

I applied a coat of Miss Mustard Seed Soft Wax with a brush once the glaze had dried. . .

allowed the wax to dry for a bit, then lightly buffed with a clean cloth.

We put the legs back on and stood her up in her new home. Sorry, I was too excited to take a picture of that!

Are you ready? Huh? Huh? Are you ready?
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Drum roll please . . . . . .

 

I'm so over the moon with how it turned out! And the hubs? Ya, he's pretty much in love with it too!

Thanks again for stopping by.

Till next time,
Julie (the DIYer)

Up next:
Hmmm . . . not sure. I've got another china hutch and a kidney desk that have been patiently waiting . . .