Table Troubles

This is my not so glamorous kitchen table.  We debated long and hard if we even should bring it to our new house. Neither of us wanted to display beat up furniture in a new home that we are so excited about.   

I'm going to show you the good, bad and ugly of this project from start to finish. This one may take awhile because I've never worked on a piece in this bad shape before.  The chairs are half black and half white because the white ones have primer on them. We purchased the chairs from a yard sale. The table was my Mother-in-law's table many years ago, it has sustained a lot of damage over the decades. 

 

It's not a solid top table and water damage from spills & heat (possibly from a rogue pizza box) has caused the lamanate top to raise and split and show the particle board underneath. The table is the texture of sawdust underneath the flaking off wood.  

 

The white paint on the table is from other projects past, it's been a table I used in my Saratoga Springs home when my kids were very small and we did many art projects on top of it.  I no longer do art on the kitchen table (most of the time) and my kids are older so I think it's time to re-finish this into something beautiful.

    I have at least two other wood tables at my house right now, and all are in better shape than this one -I'm a bit of a furniture hoarder- and my husband has asked me many times why I am saving this one. The answer is complicated, I like the size and shape of this one, and I want the challenge of seeing if I can repair something in such bad shape.  

  I refinished this one for a friend a couple of years ago. Her table is the same design but her table was solid wood and it was without major damage. 

 

I have a plan for my damaged table, it may take awhile since my workspace is still upside down. Moving to a new home is awesome but my wood shop at home will be non working for several more months, my husband is planning on insulating and putting in dry wall before he wants me to use it.  I'm planning on taking these pieces to the basement and painting in a makeshift spray booth down there, until my workshop is done. 

  Do you remember my media center I refinished?  Here is a refresher picture if you missed it.  

I want to do my kitchen table to coordinate with the media center and with my kitchen.   I want to do the base of the table in the antique white of my kitchen cabinets, and the chairs in the blue metallic of my media center, with a dark stained table top. 

 

The damage to the table top is very severe but I want to see if I can pull off a repair miracle.  It's not the table I ultimately want for my dining room.  The table I really want is one I want to build myself, with very plush tufted formal dining chairs.  It's going to be down the road a long ways so this is an interim piece.  For today and the next little bit, a tablecloth makes most of the badness go away.

I am definitely going to start with getting all the chairs one color.  I have a few other projects outside the home coming up, these ones are incredibly fun and exciting, I can't wait to show you! 

  Have a very Merry Christmas!  

Love, Lori 

game room

So about 11pm I got a wild hair to paint an elephant on my wall. I asked my husband. (while he was sleeping, and he said it was ok, lol)  I had some spray paint at home so I jumped into it right before the kids went to school.  I started spraying blues and teal colors on the wall.   This is the wall before I started.

Moving boxes, boring chairs and my ceiling fan waiting to be hung up.  I had a few cans of spray paint so I started but I quickly ran out.  I had to make a quick trip to The Home Depot to get a few supplies.  I have done some spray painting on canvas at home but this is my first spray painting on a wall.  I wanted to see how it would work with adding details.  I have painted several murals but this is the first 100% out of spray paint. 

After it being super bright and colorful, I muted down the blues, purples and teals.  I like the more muted colors better.  My oldest said "let's talk about the elephant in the room" lol,  she's so corny.

 There is still SO MUCH I want to learn about using spray paint to do murals, I'm still more comfortable with using a brush and paint, but it's good to start somewhere.  This is the kids game room tonight.... much more interesting than the boring wall. My kids and sister asked what the LHD stands for, I just added designs after my name to go with my blog and instagram.

Here is the elephant from several angles.  I'm not sure if I am satisfied with it or if I will paint on him some more.  I was going for an urban jungle theme.... I might add more to the other walls and then come back and tinker with him more or I might leave it for awhile until I get what my husband calls a "creative seizure".

For scale here are my kids, Adventure Baby 10 and Danger Baby 7

They can have something funky in their game room. Danger Baby came home from school and said it was "freaking awesome" so I think she approves. 

Well, that's it for today.  I stayed in the parameters my husband asked for and I finished and cleaned up before he got home so it's win-win.  If I change my mind or my taste, I can paint the wall back to the original color and start again. 

Have a great week!

LOVE, Lori