Table Refinish in Time to Give Thanks

Thanksgiving has come and gone. This year family sat at MY table to dine, so I had a lot of work to do before turkey-day. {Which was an excellent way to keep me busy and not focus on the absence of my sweet husband. He is on tour! Add that to the "thankful for" list!} My parents recently gave us a small table that had once been their first table as a couple. It was still in great condition, but needed a bit of a makeover. 

Cue the handy-dandy in-laws! When Josh's parents came to visit the weekend before he left for tour, they helped me strip the old paint off and apply milk paint.

Paint stripper is serious business. Apparently it can melt your skin off... or something like that. You need specific tools, such as a metal paint dish, nylon brush, rubber gloves, face mask, goggles, and scrapers. 

Lessons learned concerning paint stripping:

Apply carefully!

Put on a thick gloppy layer of the chemical.

Let the product do the work for you (See how the paint bubbles?)

Apply a second layer of goop if need be.

Scrape with the direction of the wood grain or it might damage the wood.

This is how much we got off after the first try.

We really liked the look of the table when it was stripped. It has been painted so many different colors, and for such a long time, it stained the wood green, red, yellow... pretty neat.

But I couldn't resist the urge to try my hand at milk paint!

Milk paint applies streaky and vintagey. We mixed slate and white to get this light blueish-grey for the tabletop. 

Then we used white for the legs.

(see all the years of paint underneath?)

Here it is covered in the milk paint.

Although it is lovely in its own right, I saw something grander ahead.

Insert countless hours of cutting out this stencil.

{Seriously... hours upon hours. For days and days.} 

As my sister said, crafters will spend so much time and energy to create something themselves. Just for the satisfaction.

Totally worth it!

This is one satisfied crafter!

You can buy stencil blanks at a craft store (such as Hobby Lobby). I also got the stencil sponges, basically circle sponges on a stick, and they worked great. Then I used a spray poly coat to seal and protect from my unruly family at Thanksgiving. 

;)

I am so grateful that my parents, sister, and brother-in-law got to spend the holiday with me in Nashville. The pictures above are from Opryland. We also visited downtown Franklin, did some shopping, some antiquing, and lots of eating! 

Now that November is coming to a close, you know what's next!

Mine and Jesus' birthdays! (In no particular order)

I'll post a wish list soon.

Stay tuned,

Hales