DIY DISTRESSED CHALK PAINT TABLE

Have you ever looked at your dinning table and wished for something different? I know I have! This is when you to start to pay more attention to Better Homes and Garden magazine in line at the grocery store. You might even find yourself wandering into Crate and Barrel on the off chance that their furniture is magically 80% off!? (I wish)

Oh, oh, oh. We’ve all been there.

But I’m here to tell you that you that your dream dinning table set is never beyond your reach!! The power of DIY is real peeps.

Okay all cinematic aside, it really is doable! The first time I refinished a table it seemed so foreign to me, but only because I hadn’t done it before. My husband has experience refinishing and he helped teach me the tricks at taking something old and breathing new life into it! Now it has grown into a kind of hobby for us!

Refinishing is the WAY. TO. GO.

Price is considerably lower. I would say most dining sets are at least around $1000. Especially if you’re going for personal taste.

It is customizable! You can make it anything you want! There has to be some thrill in taking a simple table and chairs, and designing it into something you have envisioned.

I’m so excited to share our process of turning this ordinary dining set into something much more pleasing to the eye!

This post is focused on what to do for a DIY Distressed Chalk Paint Table. I will be putting out an additional corresponding post on how to refinish/upholster dinning chairs soon.

Game Plan:

We found this table on craigslist. And while it was super yellow with 8,135 coats of the glossiest varnish on top, we had great ideas for it

I loved the look of a dark walnut stain on top, combined with a white paint for the bottom half of table.

My husband and I don’t love the look of high gloss finishes for the table top. So for the varnish we choose to use a satin finish. Much less glossy but still looks and feels fresh.

I knew right off the bat that I wanted to use chalk paint for the rest of the table. I had heard great things about it! One of them being the soft velvety finish… ahhhhh

We also planned on using a wax afterward to help give a good layer of protection to the paint.

I am aware that with chalk paint, it is said that you don’t need any prep work sanding, priming, etc. However, being married to someone who has prep-work engrained into his routine… we figured it wouldn’t hurt to do it anyway. For this particular project, which is a big project.  Any precaution to flakey paint, right??

What You Need:

Electric Orbital Sander
Orbital Sand paper- 80 grit and 220 grit
Varathane* Wood Stain- Dark Walnut-1 can
Varathane* Polyurethane Clear Coat- 1 can
Americana* Chalk Paint- Everlasting- start off with 2 cans
Americana* Wax- 1 Can
Perdy Nylone* Paint Brush- 2″ angled
Sanding Sponge- extra fine grit
Killz* Spray Primer- 1 can
Black Enamel Spray Paint- 1 can
Rags (old t-shirts work fine)
Garbage bags or newspaper
Painters tape
Large cardboard flats or an old blanket.

* – the brand is found at HomeDepot

Step 1: Sand your table!

Any area that is going to be stained needs to be sanded down to the natural wood. With your orbital sander and 80 grit sand paper, sand along the same direction as the wood grains until the raw wood is exposed.

Along the curved edges of the table I recommend to sand by hand. The electric sander will get carried away on any corners and warp them.

Complete your sanding with the 220 grit paper for a smooth finish.

Side Note: Orbital sanders tend to leave circular marks which are visible when staining. Its important to finish with the 220 grit and sand with the wood grain, to minimize these. For best results sand everything by hand….its up to you to decide what you prefer. But in my opinion, I hardly notice the little circular marks! So we went the faster route by just using the electric sander.

Side Note: If your table top is a veneer, be very carful not to over sand in one spot!  We’ve done this before, we sanded right through the veneer and it looked really weird! All you have to do is sand nice and evenly to avoid this problem.

Now take some extra 80 grit sand paper, and for the rest of the table that is to be painted, give those surfaces a good scuff. These areas don’t need to be stripped down to the raw wood. We just need to give the paint something to hold on to.

Side Note: You see that darker inner-lining following the shape of the table top? That is a groove that goes around the whole thing. IF YOU HAVE THAT listen up.  When we bought the table it had tons of crumbs and food in it! Of course any cracks or grooves are going to suck in any crumb it can get. If that is bugging you and you want to change it, you can! We wanted that whole line to be filled in to prevent having to scrape the yucky yuck out every so often with a growing family.

All you need is Elmers* Stainable Wood Filler.  And it does just that. It is stainable and it fills in wood! Hallelujah!

Just make sure you have every thing sanded and ready to go as far as the table top goes, and then proceed to follow instructions to fill in with the wood putty. And then you can stain it all at the same time after. Thats what we did!

Step 2: Time to stain!

Before staining make sure the wood is dry. If water has gotten on the raw wood the stain will not apply evenly in those areas. You’ll need to wait and let the wood dry.

Shake your stain can a little bit and then open carefully. Be cautious where you put your can…what the stain touches won’t come out.

Side Note: If you have laytex gloves handy, go put some on. If you don’t, its fine you can still use your hands. You will get stain on them, but you can use Mineral Spirits to remove it.

Take one of your rags and dip a fair amount of stain on it. Cover the raw wood in the stain. Soon after you cover an area with stain, take a clean dry rag and wipe the excess stain from the area.

Continue to use one rag to stain and the other to wipe. Only one coat of stain is needed.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE:  You need to dispose of the stained rags properly! Rags with wet stain that are wadded up and left are potentially COMBUSTABLE.  Make sure to lay them out flat and let them dry. Then you can proceed to throw them away.

Allow the stain to dry and then move on to the next step!

Step 3: Apply the protective clear coat to the table top!

DON’T shake the can of varnish! It will create bubbles that will show up with your clear coat. Instead use a tool to stir the varnish slowly before using.

Evenly apply the varnish, stroke by stroke with your paint brush.

The varnish looks pale blue-ish when applied, but don’t worry it will dry on clear 🙂

Let the clear coat dry for about an hour before applying more coats.

Sand between each coat of varnish using your sanding sponge. It helps create a smooth overall finish. But leave the last coat unsanded. I recommend giving it a couple hours for the clear coat to harden.

We wanted our table to have a good amount of durability. We thought 4 coats of varnish was appropriate.

Side Note: Your paint brush must stay moist while you are waiting in between coats! If it is left out and dries, it will ruin your brush pretty bad! When you are waiting in between coats for any painting project, always wrap your brush well in sryan wrap or a garbage bag to prevent it from drying. When you are done using your brush or you are ready to switch to a new paint, wash out your brush thouroughly and squeeze the water from the bristles. Hit the brush neck against your shoe to get rid of the extra water you weren’t able to squeeze out.

Step 4: Protect the newly finished table top by wrapping it with garbage bags or newspaper. Covering it completely is important! Use tape around the under edges of the table to secure the garbage bags/newspaper.  The upcoming steps involve paint and you do not want your finished work so far to be compromised!

Lay down soft cardboard or an old blanket on the ground. Flip your table upside down and lay it down on top. Remove the legs from the table (and drawers, if you have them).

Step 5: Prime the areas ready to be painted with the Killz spray can.

Side Note: Make sure you have good air circulation in the area you’re using spray paint.

Side Note: In case you have drawers and in case you are in a conflict with them, here’s what we did. We decided that we weren’t going to actually use them. I can guarantee that we’d just find a bunch of crayons and other junk in there. So we nixed the functioning part of the drawer. We obviously couldn’t get rid of the fact that they were there, so we decided to remove the drawer face off of the rest of the drawer (we used a hammer to break it up) and then we proceeded to refinish the drawer face just like the rest of the table. After it was all done, we screwed the drawer face to the table from the back. Now it is just a decorative part to our table! With no clunky unusable drawer underneath! Just some good information for you 🙂

Last thing is to quickly sand all your pieces using the sanding sponge, to smooth out the primer.

Step 6: Spray paint with black.

Side Note: When it came time to distress the table, I wanted to see black. I didn’t want all of my distress marks to scream “yellow wood”, and thats why I decided to add this step to our refinishing process. Yes, it does mean that you will end up using more paint to cover the black. But here’s an idea, only to spray heavily on the areas you know you will be distressing (which in my case was the edges, and less of the flat areas) Leave the rest white from the primer if you like. That actually might help to reduce your amount of painted needed.

Once the black paint has dried completely, give the table pieces another sand using the sanding sponge.

Step 7: Start to paint using the chalk paint!

Use nice even strokes.

Make sure to wipe off any thick goobers you see with your finger, especially along the edges and the underneath part too (where it tends to drip off). If the paint is wet, it is easy to wipe off and paint over the finger mark. And just a precaution while you are painting, always lightly retouch the egdes with one long stroke to get rid of anything you can’t spot.

If a goober has already dried, don’t sweat it. You will just have to take some time and sand it off as best you can.

Side Note: I noticed that the chalk paint goes on pretty thick and it tends to leave thick paintbrush marks when it dries. If you don’t mind that, then you are fine! If you would rather something more smooth, add a little bit of water in the can. It dilutes the paint and helps give you a chance at a smoother chalk paint look! The catch with diluting the paint means you will need to spend more time adding coats.

Sand everything with the sponge in between each coat! (At this point you are probably getting sick of sanding huh 🙂 But just remember that each time you sand, you are one step closer to a velvet-y finish!)

Give as many coats of chalk paint as you see necessary!

Step 8: Now its time to wax your chalk paint!

My go at waxing was pretty easy. To me it only seemed like I was painting a last coat onto the table. It is clear and you want to make sure you get it everywhere to protect the chalk paint.

You don’t need to sand after waxing!

Step 8: Time to distress!

Take some extra 220 grit orbital sand paper (or something fine grit), and slowly distress mostly the edges and some parts of the flat surfaces.

Side Note: I distress off of this basic idea. The edges are what get dinged up the most in a real life situation, so I see that as the most natural place to start! And I like to add some larger distressed marks here and there to accentuate the overall vintage look. Distressing is the most fun in my opinion! Don’t panic if you think you did it wrong, because most likely you did it right! Thats what is so amazing about distressing furniture. There is no pressure for perfection! The way it comes out, is the way it is supposed to be!

YOU ARE DONE!!

Voila!!!!

Take some time to breathe. Sit in front of your table and just sigh over the work of art you have just finished.

Let it sink in as part of your refreshed home.

And feel free to drool over the details.

That wood grain though….

The chalk paint is just so velvety…no wonder there’s a big hype!!

We ended up spending a lot less than we would have if we were to buy a new dining set, and we got to pick the exact finishes we wanted! It may seem like a big project, and with that comes intimidation…but dont let it stop you! You will get in a rhythm and you will become comfortable with refinishing. Give it a try! You won’t regret it!