Kitchen Table Transformation

All I have to say is ahhhhh - it's good to be back!  I have been busting a move these past few days since I got back from NJ.  I got tired of hearing myself talk about finishing the kitchen table and chairs and painting the kitchen, and I finally just got to it.  I am exhausted, and my body aches from painting but it's almost done.

This is our original table.  I hate to see it go - but we have had it for about 9 years, and I was ready for something new.  This one took up alot of room in the kitchen, and I wanted something a bit smaller, and round.  I forgot to snap pics of it in the room, duh.  But we had it out for a garage sale this weekend, so I took some of it on our driveway.

About a month ago we purchased a pedestal table and four oak chairs from an antique store in town - they needed a lot of love.

I wanted to paint the chairs white, but still keep the antique feel.  I sanded around the rough edges, and then primed them.  May I take the time now to say I HATE SANDING!  LOL.  After that part was done, I sprayed them with two coats of white semi gloss paint, and then sanded the edges where they would have naturally worn over time.  We had just finished staining the table, so I rubbed the rag with the stain on it over the sanded edges to bring them out more.  Then the last step was to add two coats of water based polyurethane. This all took me two days to finish!!

I didn't take any before pictures of this table either (what was I thinking??).  It looked the same as it does now - same color - but was in a lot rougher shape.  We had to take the whole thing apart and sand all of the pieces.  Then, the original table had casters on the bottom, but they were missing when we bought it, and the table was way too short.  Hubby had to nail three 2 x 4s together and then attached them to the underside of the tabletop to give it some more height and bring it back to 30" high.  Once it was all put back together, I stained it with some chestnut stain and applied three coats of poly.  Here she is now:

Whew - so that's what I did on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.... and the rest of the transformation has taken place this weekend (and will be a work in progress).

I wanted to reveal the table today and tomorrow I will show you the before (and hopefully after) pics of my kitchen.  My original design for the kitchen was more of a Tuscan style, and now I am going cottage all the way (and I love it!)  

Till tomorrow!!

Linking Up To:

Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party