I feel this article needs to come with an advanced warning. Like those “viewer discretion advised” alerts.
Oh, there’s nothing racy or violent. But there is a very good chance that after seeing how this woman rehabbed a table, you’ll be obsessively scouring Craigslist and Letgo for free tables.
You have been warned.
The DIY Cottage
Bria, of The DIY Cottage, admits to having something of a problem. When she shared this dining room table makeover, it was the third dining room table she’d done that year. She thinks she might be crazy, but I don’t think so at all. Especially when you consider the results.
As she says in her YouTube video,
“I kind of enjoy the process of making over dining room tables.”
I’ll take you through the process from before to after of the third, but here are pictures of the first two dining room tables she rehabbed.
As Bria admits, she has fallen in love with the process itself. She’s loved each table, but once it’s done, it’s not long before she wants to get her hands on another project. So she sells that last one and starts again.
Tile Top to Wood Top
When she saw this table that someone was giving away, she shares it was the legs she fell in love with. That and the fact that the table was in pretty good condition. So once she had it in her hot little hands there really wasn’t much to do, other than changing out the tabletop and doing some painting.
Her first step was a trip to Home Depot where she purchased the cheapest pine lumber she could find. But she does have a word of caution for those who might want to try this project themselves.
Even though she was buying the cheapest wood she could find, she did take the time to make sure the boards she was buying were as straight as possible.
To do that she would line the board up with her nose and look down it. If there was an obvious bow to the board, it was put back on the shelf.
If you have never shopped for lumber before, Instructables has a great tutorial on how to choose lumber. As they say,
“Choosing lumber can be tricky! Even after you’ve decided on a type of wood and calculated the dimensions you’ll need, every board is different and it takes time and patience to get lumber that will really make your finished project sing.”
The Process
After buying her wood, Bria went to work.
Her first step was to sand down the tile top of the old table, in an attempt to roughen it up. The purpose of this is to help with adhesion, but she’s not sure that it really helped.
Next, she marked the center of the table and the center of one of the pine boards.
Using Elmer’s Probond Advanced glue, then proceeded to glue the boards to the old tabletop. Once the boards were down, she weighted them down with whatever heavy objects she could find.
To further secure the boards, she used two wood screws per board to screw them to the table.
After 24 hours, the table was dry.
From here, since the boards weren’t 100% even, she took the table outside and sanded it down in order to make the top as smooth as possible.
Once that was done, she used wood filler along the board joins and where the screws had been counter-sunk. When that was dry, she sanded one more time.
And Now to Make it Beautiful
Once the building part is done, it’s time to make this look good.
Bria uses a gorgeous walnut colored MinWax stain. After 24 hours of drying, she applied four coats of a poly topcoat, sanding between each coat. This protects the wood and gives it a mirror shine.
Now, all that was left for her to do was painting the outer edges of the old tabletop, which were still visible under the new. She painted it white to match the legs.
And the result is a gorgeous farmhouse table that cost her next to nothing.
What do you think? Is this a project you would like to try?
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