Dining Room Table Makeover

When I first purchased my town home in Denver, a very kind lady at church asked if I could use a dining room set and gave me her old one for free.  It experienced some trauma on the way to my house:

  

But I was able to glue it back together (with a ton of pointers from Dad).  The table has held up great since, but it also has experienced a bit of wear and tear from use.

Recently some church missionaries were over for dinner and out of the blue they offered to help refinish our table and shortly after that offer, one of Hylie's friends was over and commented our table was 'dirty', I got the hint and knew it was time to take action.

So last Monday the work began.  I got an orbital sander, some wood stain, and white paint and started getting up early in the morning to give me some kid-free time to make this project happen.

"BEFORE"

I was quite excited when the table top was sanded and ready for the stain.  I had done some research and picked what I thought was the perfect stain color.

 Only, after I had applied it, it acted more like paint than a stain.  I was pretty miffed, to say the least.  I even called the company to ask if others have complained about it hiding wood grain--they said yes but claimed I did everything wrong so that is why it didn't come out correctly.

 I let them know I followed the directions on the can, but they still didn't seem to care about the fact that I had to re-sand the table top and start all over.

The next stain I picked turned out beautifully and I was able to paint the base of the table white.  Not only am I thrilled with how it turned out, I'm pretty pleased with myself for accomplishing all of this in less than a week!

"AFTER"

Now, on to the chairs!