Kitchen Update

Taylor and I have always loved doing silly, little DIY projects from pinterest... but this one takes the cake.  This project was our biggest, most fulfilling, worth the money, worth the time kind of project!  I have grown to love Buy, Sell, Trade facebook pages for our area and I was lucky and quick enough to snag the greatest kitchen table for $100.  The best part of the sale was that the sellers lived less than 3 miles from my house.  I loaded up Luke one evening, we went the ATM for our cash and traveled the looong (ha!) distance to make our purchase.  The sellers were super nice, too.  Here is the post and the original look of the table.

The table was COATED with the thickest, most shiny clear coat in all the universe.  We knew it was going to be time consuming to sand that all off.  We opted for a chemical to get the removal process started.  

This stuff worked magic.

After the stripper sat for the recommended time, we began by scraping off the gunk that had become of the clear coat.  It was amazing how it was just peeling right off.

Next, we sanded off what was left.  Then we worked on evening out the color and texture as best as possible.

The top is covered in the stripper, the bottom half had been treated and sanded. 

It did not take long to get the table to a very natural, ready for staining state!

We laid the table top of our card table so we could get up off the sawdust.... this was luxurious!

Next, stain!

We chose a VERY dark brown color.

We were so worried that is looked black at first.  After our first coat was painted on, we rubbed and rubbed and rubbed to get this brow, distressed look.  It was so easy and we totally surprised ourselves with the outcome!

Our garage was full of fumes & sawdust!

Luke came out to help once in a while.

We moved on to the chairs and the base/ legs of the table. 

The chairs took a bit more time, because of the detail in the wood and the small size of each piece.

And for a grand total of $225, we have a new-to-us table and we love it!

But, the fun did not stop there.  We brought the new table in and realized our kitchen was still so blah and it needed more.  

So, we moved onto painting.... stripes... in our kitchen.  Looking at pinterest, it seemed that stripes were best in an office or maybe a bathroom.  I would have never thought about the kitchen.  I love the character it adds to our space!

First, we measured the whole wall & divided evenly into 5 spaces.  (In the end, after several re-tapings, the measurements were swayed a bit)

The best tip I can give is to "X" the wall sections you are not going to paint!

As you all know, taping is the hardest part of any painting project.  Luckily, Luke was napping through this project.  Taping the wall took about 2 hours.  One.  wall.  took.  2.  hours. 

So worth the perfection, in the end-- i promise!

Easy as pie!  Luke was so excited to wake up to a painted wall!

Our new table looks a million times better with a pretty wall!

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