Pinterest Challenge: Christi’s Dining Table

Next up to share a pinterest project is my good friend Christi Fitch. She also contributes posts every now and then as well and has the most excellent grasp of color when it comes to home decor, painting and pretty much anything that has to do with color. If she says paint your room gun metal grey or sunburst orange., YOU DO IT. Why? Because Christi said so. Anyways I digress, she also wanted to take part in the Winter Edition of The Pinterest Challenge.

Christi recently came across this dining table on the side of the road and like the little furniture hoarder she is; she dragged it home and kept it in her garage. Then once the pinterest challenge arose she knew this table was going to make the perfect project. Her inspiration came straight from pinterest with a detailed DIY of how to refinish a table. Here’s the before. Just a plain table with a lot of potential. Check out those clawed feet! Makes me think of the clawed feet on my beloved purple sofa. So she brought it out to her backyard to get down to business.

Here’s another view of the before from the side. Check out those scratches on the side and that awful light color of wood.

Christi began the dining table redo by giving the table a heavy sanding. She had to use an electric sander because she decided she wanted to stain it and when you choose to stain furniture that has been previously stained you must do your best to remove all traces of the previous stain or it will come out streaky. Also remember to sand with the grain of the wood. Here’s the top of the table completely sanded down to naked wood. (Haha naked wood!)

Then came the tricky part – sanding around the legs which is not easy and has to be mainly hand-sanded to get all the cracks and crevices.

Once all the sanding was completed she wiped the table down and began the process of staining. She spread the stain on in the direction of the wood and then wiped it off to achieve the correct stain. Most often it takes very little stain to complete a piece because a little stain goes a long way.

Make sure to catch any drips that the stain may leave behind. Unless you have a power hose like Christi you may want to lay down some cardboard or plastic underneath your project so you don’t make a mess of you workspace.

She let it sit over night and then touched up any spots she may have missed. I think this deep mahogany/espresso really suits the table so much better than the light color it was before. Mhhmmm lookin’ good.

Christi saw some major potential in a table that many of us would have just looked past and kept walking. Another pinterest success story! Don’t forget to check out my personal pinterest end table project and Becca’s lamp revamp. Feel free to add your own pinterest challenges to our comments section! We’d love to see them and maybe even pin one or two of them! Thanks again to Katie Bower and Sherry Petersik for dreaming the whole Pinterest Challenge up! Can’t wait for next season!