Kitchen table and chairs

     We bought a kitchen table and 4 chairs off craigslist a couple weeks ago. Our chairs are upholstered in cream colored fabric and are not holding up to Mari very well. I wouldn't mind the white, and would actually prefer it, if we could easily  wash the covers. Our slip-covered white armchair has turned out to be fantastic and still looks as good as new after I wash it with a little bleach. Alas, the kitchen chair cushions are attached with dozens of staples. I'm ready for some easily-wipable wooden chairs now. 
     I tried really hard not to get excited about this table and chairs when I saw them online. The guy was only asking $50 and the solid wood table is really pretty. After some e-mailing we arranged to pick up the set later that day. Turns out, a dog has chewed many of the chair legs and they are uncomfortable, at least when compared to our plush, cushy, rolling chairs, but when the guy lowered the price to $30, I couldn't say no. We figured they would need to be refinished anyway because of the color, and most of the chew marks are superficial.

     Our current table is very functional and we've been extremely happy with it. It's some kind of laminated particle board - virtually indestructible. The only downside to this table is that it doesn't look very nice without a tablecloth on it. Still, we want to keep it for a craft/school table. Someday, if we have a dining room and eat in kitchen, two tables with be handy. In the meantime, two tables and eight chairs won't fit in our dining room, so Daniel took the legs off the new one and is storing it in the shed until I can start working on it.

One week later:
I started refinishing our kitchen table! I had been waiting for the perfect, cool evening to do it. Daytime weather is too hot and humid and Daniel and I cleaned the tool room, so I didn't want to sand in there.
The finish was very easy to sand off. It took about 1.5 hours with 60 grit sandpaper and the orbital sander to get most off. By then the sun had set and I had to quit. The table is so heavy that Daniel moved it in and outside for me. I'm impressed he could manage it alone.

Early the next morning I spent another hour sanding with 120 sandpaper. After that I switched to sanding by hand with 220. Finally, an hour after that, I gave it a final sanding with 400 and cleaned the dust off.
Daniel moved it inside and I began staining using leftover Dark Walnut colored stain. The color is a little darker than we originally wanted... It looked much lighter on the underside section of the table that we tested. Oh well... in general, I'm really happy with it.

Close up

The table saw makes a great work surface

Another view

Every day for the past four days I've been giving it a very light sanding and applying a coat of Verathane. So, the top is done! Now we need to pick out a paint color for the legs and chairs. We'll probably go with a very dark blue or green, like they already are. We decided that stripping all the paint off the chairs and table would be WAY too much work, so I'm just going to sand off the teeth marks and rough up the paint enough to re-paint them.

My goal is to have this done by the time our new baby is born. Hopefully, I'll get on a roll and finish them this month. The weather needs to cooperate for that though. 







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