Dining Table

We had a productive long weekend. We made great progress with hanging our new light fixtures and while my talented hubby was up in the roof connecting the lights I used my time to work on a little job I had been meaning to attempt for a while. This was our dining table.....

I forgot to get a good 'before' shot, the photo above was actually taken to be used as a 'before new light fixture' photo but it will have to do the job for my 'before' dining table picture.

The 'during' photos don't quite convey the amount of work that goes into preparing the furniture or the amount of pain my muscles are in today from all of the sanding.

As I sanded, we changed our minds about what finish we would do on the table. Both Nick and I decided that we liked the different shades that were uncovered as I worked. Initially we had decided to paint the legs of the table white and leave the table top raw and wax or oil it.

We decided that we liked the different shades in the timber and we wanted to keep some of that effect to create interest so we tried a white wash on the table legs.

To achieve this finish, apply the paint to the furniture and then wipe it off with a wet rag. I used a water based paint that we had left over from the doors and trim.

We left the table top raw and just used furniture wax to give it a protective coating.

As we finished up sanding (yes, Nick came to my rescue and helped finish the sanding), Nick found this.....

Photo source: McCarthy Designs

More Before and After

Before

The paint job was so bad, on this wall the previous owners must have had a entertainment unit sitting against the wall and when they painted the skirting board they have painted up to a point on either side and left what they couldn't reach....

After

The pretty new wall with a proper paint job. It took me weeks/months to convince my husband that a photo wall would look good. He still likes to tease me about my need to cover every inch of wall space with stuff. He often looks up at the ceiling and wonders out loud how long it will be before I start putting things up there.

When we bought our house there were a few feature walls and one feature room that had been painted using a suede effect. While I have always liked the effect I didn't realise what a pain it was to remove when you wanted a change. The suede effect paint has a textured finish that requires sanding before you can repaint. Well that was fun, particularly in the 'blue room', every wall was painted in the suede paint and we had to sand it all and the undercoat the room as it was such a dark colour. What a mess, I had blue stuff coming out of my nose when I blew it. Yuck! Yes in the last photo I am vacuuming the wall....

Photos: McCarthy Designs