I cannot wait to share this farmhouse style dining room table makeover with you! It turned out AAHHMAZING!
The story starts with a unique but outdated and beat up table I found at a local thrift store:
This thing had definitely seen better days! (And can you believe that print on the cushions?! Yikes!)
But I loved the details of the woodwork, and I could see that it still had potential!
I’m going to show you step by step how I transformed it from drab, to farmhouse chic!
Supplies Used:
- Goo Gone Multi-Surface Paint Remover for latex paint
- Scraper
- Paper towels
- Mouse sander
- Sanding block
- Washcloth
- Screwdriver
- Wood glue
(This doesn’t include supplies used to reupholster the chairs, you can check out the complete tutorial for that here: How to Reupholster/Recover Chairs – Step by Step Guide)
Table:
Paint Removal
The first step in the table’s makeover was to remove all the damaged and peeling paint from the tabletop.
I tried just scraping it off at first but it was taking far too long, and leaving a lot of scratches on the tabletop as well.
At that point I picked up some Goo Gone Multi-Surface Paint Remover for latex paint, and that stuff is really amazing!
I just sprayed it over the entire surface of the table, and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes. Then I used paper towels as well as a scraper to remove the Goo Gone and the paint from the table’s surface.
I had to repeat this process a few times to get all of the paint since there was a really thick coat on the table, but all in all it made pretty quick work of removing the paint!
The tabletop itself was in pretty good condition underneath all that paint, so I decided to leave it as it was.
Sanding
Now for the rest of the table, my original plan was to paint it (as well as the chairs) white, and then distress it so that some of the black paint underneath would show through.
BUT thankfully the black paint had some chips in it, and I realized that underneath it, the table and chairs were actually painted white!
So at this point I made a new plan, and decided to simply sand the chairs as they were, to reveal the white paint underneath!
If you want to recreate this look, I would definitely suggest first checking to see what color might be underneath your furniture’s top coat of paint, just in case you get lucky like this!
Don’t worry if that’s not the case though, you can definitely still recreate it yourself!
If your piece is already black, simply paint a coat or two of white over the top, and then distress it to reveal as much of the black underneath as you like!
If your piece is a different color entirely, you can always paint a coat of black on first, and then cover that with one or two coats of white, and then distress!
To distress the table I used a mouse sander over the entire thing (except the tabletop)
This did leave it feeling a bit rough, so afterwards I used a sanding block to go back over the entire thing. This worked great to get rid of any rough edges and left the whole thing very smooth to the touch!
Once the sanding was finished, I went over the entire thing a few times with a damp washcloth to get rid of any dust.
Repairing table legs
The table was pretty wobbly, and after inspecting it I saw that all four of the table legs were lose.
Thankfully there was no damage to the wood, so I was able to easily tighten all of the screws, and the table was perfectly sturdy again!
Chairs:
Sanding
The process for sanding the chairs was pretty much identical to the table, except first I removed all of the chair cushions by unscrewing them from the bottom.
After that I used the mouse sander to go over the entire chair.
Sometimes while I was sanding the sander would take off both layers of paint to expose the raw wood underneath, (this happened with the table too) but I felt like that just added to the distressed farmhouse look!
After I had sanded off enough of the black paint, I went over all the chairs with the sanding block as well, smoothing out any rough spots.
Once all the sanding was finished I went over the chairs a few times with a damp washcloth to remove any dust.
Reupholstering
Once the sanding was complete I reupholstered all of the chair cushions with this gorgeous teapot printed fabric!
The white on the chairs is actually more of an off-white so I made sure to pick a fabric that was off-white as well.
I LOVE this fabric, and I think it goes perfectly with the distressed white and black on the chairs!
This was my first time ever reupholstering chairs, and it was actually much easier than I expected it to be!
I’m excited to do more in the future! I also had leftover fabric once I was finished, so I’ll be saving that for a future project!
I wrote a separate detailed step by step guide showing how I reupholstered the chairs, you can read it here: How to Reupholster/Recover Chairs – Step by Step Guide
After the chairs seat were reupholstered I screwed them back onto the chairs, making sure the screws were tight.
Repairing chair legs
The chair legs were also pretty wobbly, so I had to tighten all of the screws on them as well.
One chair’s leg was also starting to come lose at the top, so before reattaching the seat to this chair I put some wood glue in the gap, and pushed the leg back against the frame.
I used some painters tape to hold it in place overnight until it dried.
Good as new!
Before and After
And now for the big reveal!
From drab thrift store table:
To farmhouse beauty!
Before:
After:
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After:
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After:
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After:
I honestly couldn’t be happier with how this dining table and chairs turned out!
It’s going up for sale this weekend, and I’m thrilled to think that this once boring and outdated piece will be getting a second chance and hopefully bringing joy to it’s new owner for years to come!
What did you think of this DIY farmhouse table and chairs makeover? Let me know in the comments!
