When we moved into our place in November, we debated over whether we needed a dining room table. We ended up choosing to put my handmade kitchen island, in the small corner of the small kitchen that designated it an "eat-in kitchen." It fit there quite perfectly, and between appliances and cooking messes, I have been SO thankful for the extra counter space. Without that corner of the kitchen free, there wasn't a very logical place to fit a table.
We have had a dining room table on and off throughout our marriage and it had never been a priority for us. We are not sit at the table kind of people, so in our often small houses, it has seemed silly to have one.
However, this cute little puppy:
Has turned into a steely eyed, 50 pound, hungry girl who is far to solid to have to push her off you as you try to eat at the coffee table... So we came to the conclusion that we needed a dining room table, whether we had room or not, it was time to make room!
We were most fortunate that sitting in our backyard was... you guessed it! a dining room table. It had been cast off by the family as we were moving and while we didn't want it, a friend committed to take it off our hands and never did. So its been sitting in our yard all winter with us wondering what to do with it. I had ambitions of a patio table after a refinish and lots of polyurethane, but after shoving the dog off me during a meal once again, I set my sights on an inside table. So we shifted our living room furniture around a bit and found a corner for it.
The before picture. Its a solid oak table that is sturdy and was FREE, but that dated golden oak finish had to go.
Another before of the table and the monsters. Our older dog is not so food obsessed, but the puppy has some awful manners when it comes to people food.
"I was thinking of chalkboarding the top...." I had told Pete as we sat on our couch brainstorming ideas. "Yes, let's do that." He responded, and within minutes we were on our way to the trusty ace hardware store.After a few laps around the hardware store, I opted for a flat black finish on the bottom.
Here is the base of the table after one coat of black. With all the grooves and curves, I had to brush it on, which meant more coats, but the paint went on more easily than I expected... that first coat always looks sooo bad!
First coat of chalkboard paint. This we rolled on with a 3/8" thick nap just like the rustoleum chalkboard paint directions said to.
Here is the base after coat 2. still pretty streaky, but a significant improvement.
In all, we did 3 coats of black and 2 pretty thick coats of chalkboard to get a result I was quite happy with.
The instructions had us wait for 3 days to do anything with the chalkboard paint. I think that was the hardest part of the process. We were both ready to draw on it! To make sure that we did not cheat and start early (and risk ruining the finish), we just didn't buy chalk until the third day.
Once we hit that mark, I had to condition the chalkboard paint, by giving it a though coating of chalk all over it.
I did this just by turning a stick of white chalk on its side and coloring in the whole top.
This process made me a little nervous about the end result because there was some definite texture to the paint finish that really came out by scraping the chalk on it. But once I wiped it off, you couldn't tell and it looked great!
At this point, I had to head off to work and Pete was home for the afternoon enjoying some free time. While I was gone, him and some friends clearly enjoyed the new furniture addition because when I came home, every INCH of the top had chalk drawings... We had a futurama theme with nearly everyone from the cartoon drawn out, as well as a Colorado flag, a sunset....
I had no idea our friends were all such artists! But you know what they say, you give some men a box of multicolored chalk and...
Okay, that is definitely not a saying.
I hate to erase it, but I guess that is why it is done in chalk, so there can be a new masterpiece every couple of days.
Next project is some placemats so we don't mess up the nice refinish with dinner dishes....
I would love to hear what projects you are working on right now: whether it be for your work, your humble abode, your sweetheart (it is valentine's day afterall)... I definitely feel like we all need some creativity in our lives to keep things from getting too repetitive. Tell me what you are working on now... or would like to be working on soon!
And as always, Happy crafting my friends!
Lia
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