1st attempt = F, 2nd = C and 3rd = B+ (Maybe an A-)

Picture it....

A small table and four chairs.
A table whose finish has been disintegrating for years.  One that had been scribbled on with permanent marker, paint, pen, and crayons.  Banged on and dented with silverware, toys, who knows what else. One that has been well used!

We purchased this table 7 years ago.  We were living in a 1941, 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 story, New England bungalow in the city, blocks from a lake.  I loved that house.  We could walk EVERYWHERE, swim at the lake, run around the lake and well, I could go on and on, but alas, this story is about a table.  Anyway, we decided to sell our home.  It was small ~ barely 990 sq feet.  With our growing family, dog and fact that all of our family lives out of state we wanted something bigger.  We called our real estate agent.  Her only suggestion to put our home on the market was to get rid of the huge, solid oak table we currently had and replace it with a smaller table.

So, we headed to Ikea.  We didn't want to spend much and we ended up purchasing a dining set with a table and 4 chairs ~ it was the perfect table for the space (see, the eat in kitchen was tiny... and this was the dining room too! )

When we purchased our table, it looked like this:

Ikea 

(and yes, you can still purchase this set)

Anyway, fast forward to today...

The finish was so bad that it felt like there was syrup on it.  It was so sticky.  And no amount of scrubbing with .... anything would fix it.  See for yourself (I forgot to take a pic of the other side with all of the marker on it):

So I decided last Thursday, when hubby was out of town and I needed something to occupy me, that I would sand her (the table is a girl, I guess) down, restain her with a bit darker stain (because that's what I had on hand and I though it would give a good, rustic, run down feel.)

Here's how she looked after sanding and coat of stain.

UGLY and HORRIBLE!

Well, I couldn't let that be.  I grabbed my primer and got to work, priming the top of the table.

Then, 3 coats of black paint later, I had this for a kitchen table:

Better, maybe a C.
Not good enough.

Back to the primer and on to the sides and legs of the table.

Voila ~ here we go, MUCH BETTER!

Moral of the story:
Sometimes the easy way, is not the best way :)


And now, what to do with the chairs ~ that are scratched, dinged up and gorilla glued together.  Seems like a lot to paint :)

If I didn't want to redo my kitchen and replace the current island with a longer bar/island I would just go shopping, but since I have my fingers crossed that a kitchen re-vamp will happen in the future I don't want to invest in anything.

So for now, I'll just live with this:

Which is still so much better than it was!