Diva Locks (Diva Do's & Everything In Between)

Hey Guys!

Welcome to another DIY project! DIY dining room table.

In this post I will share with you how to repurpose a dining room table and give it new life.

Let’s start with a before picture, shall we.

Hmmm, where do I begin…..Well let’s start from the bottom up. The rug for starters was too small for the area, it was a 5 x 7. The chair cushions were stained by a couple of then smaller messy kids. They are still messy as teenagers just bigger, in case you wondered. The table itself had some scratches from moving. The plant in the corner was huge and overbearing. The centerpiece was underwhelming. Overall this corner of the home was just dark and uninviting.

Buying a new dining room table was a bit out of the price range and this piece still has great bones, solid wood with granite inlays. I just knew it could be freshened up, all it needed was a makeover!

First up were the granite inlays.

After removing them from the table, and a good cleaning later they were ready to be covered. Using this Con-Tact paper purchased at The Home Depot.

Here is the after:

This was a little tricky at first, the hardest part was smoothing out the bubbles, a credit card is a perfect tool for the job.

Next up were the chairs. That meant, this project moved down into the basement, old scrap wood was perfect to set the chair on for painting.

Here is the before of the chair

The chalk paint used in this project was by Folk Art in the color Oatmeal, all it took was two coats on all four chairs and the table. A total of 3 bottles was used to completely finish the job. The chalk paint was applied with a cheapy synthetic brush purchased at Joann’s.

Here is how the chair looked after one coat

And here is how it looked after two coats

Close up

A light sanding in between each coat with 320 grit sandpaper helped give the paint a smooth finish and remove any brush strokes.

To seal the chalk paint wax was the first thought, but after researching Polycrylic won the battle. Since this is a high traffic area I wanted to make sure my paint job held up over time. Three coats of polycrylic and a light sanding in between each coat with the same 320 grit sandpaper was done.

The same steps were repeated for the table.

For the chair cushions 2 yards of fabric was purchased at Joann’s, which was exactly enough to cover all four chairs.  A nice layer of scotch guard was added to help protect it from the messy teenagers.

Here is the after photo!

Let’s start from the bottom up. The rug was replaced with a carpet remnant purchased from a local store. This was by far the priciest item of this whole project. The rug is 7 x 9 feet and it was bound as well. The total cost was $163 including tax. The centerpiece was updated with a vase that was already had on hand, the white sand was purchased at Michael’s and the beige sand was purchased at the Dollar Tree.

The stems were bought from Michael’s in two batches, the first was 40% off each stem. The second batch was buy one get one free. The picture on the right wall replaced the two smaller pictures in the before photo. Just a simple swap was all it took, this picture was in another part of the house. The picture on the left is the same picture, the frame was just spray painted a dark grey to tie into the sectional couch (you can see a little bit of it in the bottom right corner). Finally the huge tree was removed!

I love this pace now, it looks much more bright and open and not to mention like a whole new set of furniture!

What do you guys think?

 

Enjoy!